Egypt

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has received approval from Egypt's Ministry of Agriculture to sell 50 Pct of his agricultural firm, which is developing the Toshka agriculture project in southern Egypt, and to invite Asian investors to join the project.

Egypt will invite bids in March for 50,000 acres of land in North Sinai for agro-business projects under a new land scheme that could bring in as much as 66bn Egyptian pounds ($12bn) by 2020.

Three options both governments were looking at are whether Egyptian investors would own and cultivate farmland, whether land would be owned in partnership with Egypt and Uganda, or whether land would be owned as a concession right.

While the proposed deal brings up ethical questions of exploitation, another concern is how it will impact earth changes and food security in the future.

A delegation of top Kenana Sugar officials is in Doha to hold talks with Qatar’s Hassad group to create one of the world’s biggest food producing companies with a view to ensuring food security in the Arab world.

Egypt plans to lease farmland for agro-business projects during 2010 but is waiting for the agriculture ministry to allocate suitable plots, the trade minister said on Monday.

Heightened land values have caused several Egyptian banks, private companies and government bodies to purchase agricultural land in Africa, in addition to focusing greater attention on Egypt’s land resources.

“Large Scale Farming in Africa” is an international conference, which meets on 20-21 Apr 2010 in Cairo to explore upcoming investment opportunities in Africa’s agriculture sector, and discuss risk management and financing solutions.

Uganda has agreed to allow Egypt to cultivate wheat on Ugandan soil.

Egypt, the world's top wheat importer, said on Monday it will send a committee to inspect suitable farmland in Uganda to grow wheat.

A delegation of 26 Egyptian agriculture companies led by Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza, is now inspecting land proposed by the Ethiopian government for Egyptian investment projects.

“We are now looking very seriously into Sudan,” said Zouhair Eloudghiri, chief executive officer of Savola Foods Co., a unit of Saudi Arabia’s second-largest publicly traded food producer, Savola Al-Azizia United Co.