In four years, Hassad Foods has accumulated 255,000 hectares of agricultural land with the aim of producing 165,000 tonnes of grain and 100,000 lambs annually.

“We are looking for opportunities where we can work with partners owning or running farmlands and having expansion plans. We do not want to take away the land of the poor,” the chairman of Hassad Food says.

Over the past few years Hassad Australia has amassed a property portfolio of 14 major wheat and sheep farms or clusters of properties across four states, covering 287,000ha.

We are interested in the opportunity of farming in Nigeria and we are happy that the government is facilitating that process," says Hassad Food Operations and Asset Management executive director Andrew Goodman.

Hassad Australia chief executive Tom McKeon said the company employed people from local communities, supported local businesses and paid tax. The company owns 11 farms over 250,000ha in Australia, including three in WA.

Hassad Food Co., the agricultural investment arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, plans to invest $500 million in India after buying Bush Foods Overseas Ltd.

A'Saffa Foods was established in 2001 and is the largest integrated poultry project in the Sultanate of Oman, covering over a 40 sq km farm area in Thumrit, Southern Oman.

One must ask if arrangements such as those promoted by Hassad Foods of Qatar are really that much better.

Qatar-based Hassad Food has initiated its investment in Australian ­agriculture with the purchase of the prized Kaladbro Estate in far western Victoria.

Qatar's Hassad Food is eyeing a stake in Russia's PAVA and has signed a deal potentially worth $1 billion to develop land in Sudan as it looks to grow through acquisitions and joint ventures, its chairman said on Thursday.

Ghana Investment Promotion Centre is seeking investments from Qatar to the tune of $700mn, including a major deal with Hassad Food

The Qatari company is about to bring home the first shipment of its own wheat produced overseas, and to start producing its own sugar in Brazil

Government-backed companies, as Hassad Food, have begun buying up farmland around the world, with Australia’s vast tracts of top quality primary production land a prime target.

Hassad plans to spend $US350 million ($318 million) in Australia to secure food supplies for Qatar, which imports 95 per cent of its food.

"Hassad [Food] has innovated by considering investments in overseas agribusinesses rather than only purchasing land in countries with questionable property rights, and where the indigenous population may not benefit from such purchases," writes the US embassy in Doha

Hassad Food knows how to shop. The $1b subsidiary of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund finalised a $500m agreement last year to grow wheat & rice on 100,000 ha in Sudan and has announced plans to invest $700m worldwide this year.

Qatar will make more investments overseas to produce key agricultural and horticultural commodities to ensure food supply security at home and will simultaneously focus on raising self-sufficiency in local produce.

Officials from Hassad Food arrived in Turkey to make investments aiming to slake the country’s basic agricultural requirements as the small peninsula lacks sufficient arable land

A senior official of the Brazilian embassy in Doha says Qatar Investment Authority, specifically Hassad Foods, has expressed interest in acquiring land in Brazil.

The firm also aims to conclude as many as six deals by year end, including in Latin America and is scouting Africa to set up joint ventures or buy firms to develop land.

Belarus has fertile land for agriculture and Hassad Food is evaluating different features in such markets like ease of laws

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund agricultural company launched Hassad Australia last year, aimed at ensuring that livestock and grain needs for Qatar, from Australian farmland, are met.

Tom McKeon was most recently CEO of Hassad Australia, the Doha-based Qatar Investment Authority’s food and agribusiness subsidiary.

Meanwhile, the government is planning to launch an initial public offering for the shares of Hassad Food, the strategic food investment arm of Qatar Investment Authority, in order to list it on the local bourse, according to Doha-based Al Arab daily.

"I understand Moldova has a favourable climate and good farmland, which Qatar’s Hassad Food could possibly look at for opportunities," says Qatar's Deputy Premier

Australian business council wants Qatar to invest more in food production in Australia, similar to what Qatar's Hassad Foods is pursuing.

Egypt's Prime Minister received Sheikh Nasser bin Mohamed Al Hageri, the head of the Qatari Hassad Foodstuff Company who is currently visiting Egypt to explore agricultural investments.

A Qatari Government-owned company is buying up prime agricultural land in South Australia at well above market rates and is forcing farmers to sign confidentiality agreements.

The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has launched a venture aiming to invest in food production worldwide focusing on the acquisition and development of existing agribusiness companies rather than the lease of large tracts of farmland.

While Qatar has adopted a more indirect approach to its foreign agricultural investment and increased domestic production of some food products, it is unlikely that it will be able to significantly reduce its dependence on foreign food supplies in the long term.