Agriculture

IDB, Qatari firms eye farm projects

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is looking to work with Qatari investors and institutions to invest in various sectors, particularly in agriculture in the member states, according to the bank’s vice president. “The IDB member-countries are spread from Africa to Asia and even Latin America. Many of them have plenty of resources, either water or fertile land, and IDB’s role is to be an honest broker between investors from Qatar and other Gulf countries and those who have the natural resources,” Dr Abdul Aziz Al Hinai told reporters on the sidelines of the IDB Introduction Day. He said that quite often many developing countries with such natural resources lack proper experience and also an institutional set-up, especially when it comes to legislation. “Therefore, the investor from Qatar and the region hesitates to go to those markets and IDB intends to work as a middleman for those investors to go and tap these markets,” said Al Hinai. “We are here to offer our service to various Qatari institutions and within the coming two days we will be talking to those institutions,” he said. He added that many developing countries that are members of IDB will benefit from such initiatives, whether in terms of increasing their exports, earning foreign exchange, or adding value to their agricultural products by manufacturing these products and making them available to international markets.

JMiddle East seeks homegrown agriculture boost

The Middle East is investing heavily in innovative farming methods in a bid to reduce growing dependence on the rest of the world for up to 90 per cent of food needs, say the organizers of the region’s biggest agri-business trade event – AGRA Middle East. The show covers five closely linked sectors – Agribusiness; poultry and livestock; fishing and aquaculture; floriculture and the newly launched machinery and supplies. “Growing concerns over food security have pushed countries in the Arabian Gulf to seek solutions to arid land problems,” said Goutam Malhotra, Exhibition Manager for AGRA Middle East. As a world food crisis bites harder, one solution has been buying up large tracts of land in developing nations to secure food supplies. The International Food Policy Research Institute shows the Middle East as one of the biggest land investor regions, buying up 1,149,000 hectares of land in Pakistan, the Philippines and Africa in the last three years. “As environmental issues around the world reduce crop production, however, the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) and wider Middle East countries are also looking at alternate methods to introduce at home to reduce dependence on the rest of the world for 90% of their food needs. Innovative solutions in the agriculture sector are in great demand in the region and AGRA Middle East brings together leading decision makers in one place at one time. Livestock needs are of great importance but to maintain a healthy herd, fodder of high quality is required which is rarely found in this arid region. As a response to this, there has been greater interest in high-tech systems for the production of animal feed and rearing livestock.”

Cargill to build its first sugar plant in Egypt

Agricultural conglomerate Cargill will build a US$120 million sugar refinery plant in Egypt to help meet domestic demand, Egypt's Industrial Development Authority Chairman Amr Assal said. "The plant will produce 600,000 tons of sugar per year," Assal told Reuters in an interview. "Production target is in 2012." The refinery will be Cargill's first in Egypt, Assal added. Egypt consumes around 2.7 million tons of sugar a year and produces 1.7 million tons. The majority of its imports usually come from Brazil. "We have a gap of 1 million tons per year," Assal added. "So, we have room for this sort of investments, and Egypt is a good market." Cargill will construct its sugar plant in Borg El-Arab, near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. Two Egyptian companies will also build sugar beet plants in the most populous Arab country, Assal said. Each will invest 1.2 billion Egyptian pounds (US$218.7m) and will produce 250,000 tons of sugar per year.