Gulf News | 2 May 2013
UAE moots the idea of agricultural free zones in Africa
Dubai: Hesham Al Shirawi, Chairman of Economic Zones World, on Thursday mooted the idea of establishing free zones for agri-business in Africa during the Africa Global Business Forum 2013.
He said: “Africa has potential for great success in agri-business, which will help supporting food security programmes for many counties that suffer from food shortage production.”
“The free zones could be used as storages for all kinds of food products and could also include large livestock farms and factories for packaging and exporting.“
Food security is an important issue for the UAE as the country imports 80 per cent of its food requirement due to harsh weather conditions which don’t support the expansion of domestic agriculture, Al Shirawi added.
“The zones could help secure UAE food requirements which creating jobs and enhancing economic growth in African markets.”
The establishment of corn farms is also a lucrative business proposition, he added.
Giving an example about one of the African countries, Sophia Kaduma, acting Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives in Tanzania, said that 75 per cent of the population are employed in agriculture.However, she remarked: “ We can create wealth for agri-business through agreements with private sector on the local and international level.”
Government can offer land for investments, she added.
Saleh Lootah, Managing Director of Al Islamic Foods, said Africa holds great investment potential and it is an ideal destination to expand business activities. “We already made our venture into the continent by opening our first overseas branch in Libya and we are looking for opportunities in other African markets.”
“Currently, We are negotiating cooperation with Khan Meat of South Africa as we are aware that the market for halal food products has broad prospects for growth in Africa.”
He said the demand for halal food is on the rise, which clearly means better scope for expansion for the industry. “The size of the halal food market is about $5 billion [Dh18 billion], which is a big number and we look forward to expand our activities in the African continent where large Muslim populations reside.”
While Africa can provide the source of manufacturing and packaging agriculture products, Dubai can provide the proper logistic and infrastructure to market and re-export these products, experts said.
