Three weeks ago, a team of Vietnamese investors and their technical advisers visited Sierra Leone to conduct feasibility studies with the aim of entering the agribusiness sector in the country.
Hassad Food Company is keen to secure food supplies for Qatar at reasonable prices through local and international investments in various countries, according to an article in the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry memorial book ‘40 Years of Excellence and Achievement.’
Not only collecting sweet potatoes in Vietnam, Chinese have also been coming to Vietnam, leasing land to grow sweet potatoes to export to third countries.
UAE investments in Vietnam have reached $3 billion and are set to surge with local companies considering opportunities in agricultural lands, real estate and energy.
Land deals, whether as direct purchases or long-term leases, are being brokered in poor countries by advanced capitalist countries and their TNCs
Several national companies and even the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the capital's sovereign fund, are planning investments in agriculture in countries as diverse as Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Australia, Romania and the United States.
State-backed food producing and marketing giant, Hassad Food Company, has plans to produce rice in India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Vietnamese and Chinese investors will cultivate 10,000 acres and 15,000 acres of land for rice and cassava in Edo State, Nigeria, respectively.
"Land grabbing" will be featured on the agenda of a high-level conference on the rice industry in November 2010 in Vietnam, where 17 agricultural ministers will be in attendance.
TADCO subsidiary has already arranged leases in Cambodia, Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines for export production of aromatic and long grain basmati rice.
Between 2007 and mid-2008, Gulf states and their government-backed businesses spent US$15 billion (Dh55bn) in sub-Saharan Africa alone, much of it in the drive for food security
An increasing number of Indian companies are expected to use Singapore as a springboard for their global operations, including overseas farmland investments
