Emirates International Investment Company is currently in negotiations with Algerian authorities for the purchase of land to build a large-scale milk farm, Mahassil.
If all these land deals will be beneficial to Pakistan in the long run, why is the government refusing to divulge the details of what is the citizens’ common property?
UAE foreign investment in food production have so far focused on leasing Pakistan and Sudan’s agricultural land, with new prospects in Cambodian rice, Canadian wheat and Australian beef. Alongside the strategic deals at the national level, private investment has followed which should open new channels of trade, for example, Al Qudra Holding has plans to grow grain and vegetables in Vietnam and Croatia as well as Pakistan.
The UAE is interested in investing in agriculture sector as one of the strongest sectors in Colombia due to the availability of fertile land and natural irrigation systems.
Cambodia will be the fourth country after Sudan, Egypt and Pakistan to receive UAE investments intended to achieve a food security plan drawn up by the government. Large-scale planting on Cambodian land acquired through purchase or 99-year lease may be launched there next year.
Cambodia's agriculture minister welcomed the UAE plans of the land reclamation in Cambodia, indicating Cambodia will be a partner to the UAE in regard to the agriculture.
Critics say that by seeking to solve their food shortage problem through foreign farmland acquisitions, the rich emerging economies may succeed in producing enough quantity for their populations but may in the long-term be exporting their food insecurity to other nations.
An Afro-Arab agriculture conference on farm investment, which was to take place in Zanzibar, has been cancelled due to the Tanzanian governmnt's 11th hour refusal to host it.
As part of its policy of food security, Abu Dhabi acquired 30,000 hectares of land last June through its development fund to grow alfalfa, which is used to feed cattle, and other crops such as corn.
"We have acquired a very large piece of agricultural land in the Nile Delta – a 15,000 sq km tract of land where we will be producing for international markets, including the Arab World."
Bangkok was wary of GCC efforts to ensure its food supplies by purchasing rice growing lands, and now political instability is chilling the investment climate. Tom Spender reports
During Pervez Musharraf’s time, Beijing had proposed that it be leased 2,000 acres of land for a period of 10 to 15 years with the agreement that China would make technological and financial investments in the land, invest in newer forms of seeds and other products and leave the new infrastructure to the state or the owners after the termination of the contract.
