The billions of cubic meters of Nile water, rainwater, and treated sewage water that have been pumped into Egypt's recent large-scale desert agriculture projects have come at the expense of the country's small farmers.
Gulf agribusiness companies found their panacea in Egypt, which is prioritizing investment in large-scale, modernized farming to export crops over pursuing strategic crop cultivation and traditional farming methods in the Nile Valley and Delta.
Saudi-based Al Rajhi International for Investment company targets injecting 1.2 billion Egyptian pounds (US$135 million) to reclaim 75,000 feddans in Egypt's Toshka project until 2020.
In January 2015, the Dutch embassy in Riyadh hosted a meeting with GCC investors and officials to discuss how to work together on land-based ag investments in Africa in order to achieve GCC food security.
The loan will be used to develop 3,500 hectares of land in the eastern basin of the Rkiz plain (300 km south of Nouakchott), develop another 2,200 hectares and rehabilitate 1,000 hectares in the western basin of the same plain.
L’attribution par Conseil des ministres d’une superficie de 31.000 ha des terres agricoles de la Vallée à la firme saoudienne Al Rajihi, soulève ces jours-ci la colère des populations locales et la vive réaction de l’élite nationale.
77 représentants de communautés villageoises du département de Boghé contestent une concession rurale attribuant 31.000 ha à la société saoudienne Al Rajihi, dans une correspondance adressée au président Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
Mauritanians living in Boghe, 300km south-west of Nouakchott, have asked their government to cancel a 31,000 ha rural land concession granted to a Saudi society, Al-Rajihi.
The investments, equivalent to almost a fifth of the size of the economy, will pump cash into fisheries, agriculture, livestock, health and roads while funding imports from Arab countries to the tune of $145 million.
A consortium of Saudi groups - comprising dairy giant Almarai, grain importer Al Rajhi and Salic, the agriculture arm of the country's sovereign wealth fund - agreed to pay US $92mn to acquire Continental Farmers Group located in northern Poland and western Ukraine
A consortium of Saudi groups - comprising dairy giant Almarai, grain importer Al Rajhi and Salic, the agriculture arm of the country's Public Investment Fund sovereign wealth fund – buys Continental Farmers Group, which has large farming operations in Poland and the Ukraine.
This agreement comes in line with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz’s initiative to encourage agricultural investments abroad and the council’s ongoing efforts to develop and expand the field of agriculture.
