Hassad Foods will soon ship home its first "own" harvest of wheat, produced on overseas farmland
The Peninsula | 29 August 2010
Company will market its own brand of quality rice in the local market within three months, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported yesterday quoting the chairman of the company. The rice that will be market by the state-backed Hassad will be produced by the company overseas. The company also has plans to be listed on Qatar Exchange, but not before announcing its financials for two years. The company has been posting not less than 10 to 20 percent returns over the past two years, its chairman, Nasser bin Mohamed Al Hajri, told QNA. He said plans for the company's listing on the local bourse have been afoot for a while. The company is also bringing into the country by December 2010-Janaury 2011 the first shipment of wheat produced by it overseas, the chairman said pointing out that the consignment will consist of 125,000 tons. "This will be first shipment of our wheat to be brought here," said Al Hajri. About the company's projects in Brazil, he said some 25 million tons of sugar is to be produced there annually mainly to cater to the Qatari market. This will be sufficient to meet the demand of sugar in the local market for a year. Six projects are being studied for launch in Brazil and 70 percent of production will be of sugar, the remaining 30 percent will be bio-fuels. Raw sugar will also be produced in Brazil. Hassad is also investing in poultry and poultry feed projects in Brazil. The production will take care of at least 60 percent of the demand in the Qatari market. Poultry feed is quite cheap in Brazil, the chairman said. He said the company's focus was on return on investment and on ensuring food security for Qatar. He also talked of the company's investment in agricultural projects in Sudan where some $100m has been invested and said the idea is to ensure food security back home and also make sure that food prices are stable.
