Opposition parties criticized the government for not revealing documents related to the expenditure of $11 million on a farm to breed sheep in Saudi Arabia for the interest of a Saudi businessman who owns a sheep farm in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.
Saudi company denies lawsuit against NZ govt
CAIRO: New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully is facing charges of misleading the government in regards to exporting sheep to Saudi Arabia, after it was revealed that a prominent Saudi businessman intended to sue the New Zealand government for its decision to stop exporting live sheep to the Kingdom, which incurred the businessman heavy losses, according to a report from the News Hub website.
The website said the story was revealed by an investigative report for the National channel. The channel had documents from 2013 showing that McCully claimed that the government could face a lawsuit by a Saudi businessman, Hamoud Al-Khalaf, for compensation estimated at $30 million, if the government did not resume exporting live sheep to Saudi Arabia. These allegations were rejected by the Saudi businessman and his right-hand man George Assaf.
The minister also told a parliamentary committee in 2015 that the Khalaf Group received legal consultations that could help them in their legal claim and hence the compensation of an estimated $30 million.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Kay said the documents presented to him stipulated this matter and offered advice to the government to resume exporting sheep to the Kingdom and the government took that advice.
The new occurrence in the story came from the commercial partner of the Khalaf Group, George Assaf, who said the company has no intention of suing the government and hasn't done anything in this respect. "We might have received legal counsel, but we had no intention of suing the government," he added.
The opposition criticized the government for not revealing the documents related to the expenditure of $11 million on a farm to breed sheep in Saudi Arabia for the interest of the Saudi businessman.
According to information, the Saudi investor intended to sue the New Zealand government, but the Prime Minister approved the setting up of a farm in Saudi Arabia for two purposes, the first to compensate the Saudi businessman and the second is to set up a place for Zealand products in the Gulf region, especially since the government is trying to sign a free trade agreement with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.
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Scoop | 24 June 2016
by GERARD HUTCHING
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Scoop | 24 June 2016
Saudi businessman a 'saviour' to sheep dairy industry
by GERARD HUTCHING
Dougal, an awassi sheep, took a starring role in The Hobbit. The breed is being used to improve New Zealand's sheep dairy flock.
In New Zealand his actions might have placed him under a cloud, but in Saudi Arabia businessman Hamoud Ali Al-Khalaf has been hailed as saving his "host country" from a crisis.
Al-Khalaf owns a farm in Hawke's Bay as well as in Saudi Arabia, where the New Zealand Government has been attempting to create a Middle Eastern agribusiness hub to showcase innovations in agriculture.
Following a story this week, which told of how Al-Khalaf's awassi sheep breed was being used to boost hybrid vigour in east friesian dairy sheep, Arab News reported that "by sheer dint of his business prowess, Al-Khalaf saved his host country from a crisis that had nearly devastated its sheep dairy industry".
The original story said the east friesians owned by Maui Milk were not ideally suited to New Zealand conditions, because although they were good milkers, they were not hardy, having been bred from stock used to living in barns in the northern hemisphere.
According to Arab News, the sheep dairy business faced a real crisis "because of the incapability of the east friesian sheep to produce enough milk".
Al-Khalaf had agreed to cooperate with New Zealand officials "despite the fact that the New Zealand authorities prevented him to export live cattle to the Kingdom to be slaughtered there".
In fact since the late 1980s, Al-Khalaf, has poured money into Awassi (NZ) Holdings, and by 2003, had exported about five million live sheep for slaughter into the Middle East. The trade was stopped after 4000 sheep died aboard the Cormo Express.
Meanwhile, New Zealand government officials have refused to provide details of the latest (2015) lamb breeding season at Al-Khalaf's Dammam farm, in the Middle East, other than to say New Zealand Trade and Enterprise was "comfortable" with the breeding programme progress.
"The performance of the farm – including productivity, breeding and outputs – is Al-Khalaf's commercial information which is owned by them. It's because of this we aren't in a position to provide it to you," NZTE said.
After 900 pregnant ewes had been airfreighted to the farm at a cost of $1.5 million in October 2014, two-thirds of the lambs born had perished.
The New Zealand Government has also committed to building an abattoir at the farm.
NZTE said an environmental impact report had been submitted to the Saudi authorities as part of the permit process, and once local authorities granted a permit, a construction company could be selected.
The lead provider of the agrihub funding agreement with NZTE is Hawke's Bay company Brownrigg Agriculture. The contract value is $7.5m, made up of $6m under the 2013 agreement and $1.5m for the 2014 air shipment.
To date approximately $4.7m has been dispersed to Brownrigg. In addition to this there is a $4m contract for services with the Al-Khalaf Group.
