By Andrew England and Javier Blas, Financial Times Published: June 05, 2008, 00:09
Abu Dhabi/Rome: Abu Dhabi is preparing to launch a large-scale agricultural project in Sudan to develop more than 70,000 acres of land as part of efforts to secure food supplies.
The project comes amid growing interest in the Middle East to use land overseas to ensure food security. Saudi Arabia and Egypt have also held talks with Sudan and are considering agricultural projects of their own in Africa's largest nation, officials confirmed yesterday.
Sudan has vast, but under-developed, agricultural resources and has been described as a potential bread basket for the Middle East.
Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, said Riyadh — which plans to phase out domestic wheat production by 2016 to preserve its finite water resources — had asked the institution for help with plans to invest in agricultural projects abroad.
"They have asked us to connect [Saudi Arabia] with countries in Africa and Central Asia," Zoellick said in Rome.
Abu Dhabi's project in north Sudan is being led by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, which has historically focused on providing poorer countries with soft loans for infrastructure projects.
Sudan — keen to attract funding and technology into agriculture — provides land free of charge to investors for such projects, officials said. Although rich in resources, it has been blighted by decades of conflict, and suffers from a dilapidated infrastructure.
The Sudan scheme is the first of its kind for the Abu Dhabi fund and it will be working in partnership with the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development, a pan-Arab agency based in Khartoum.
It was also considering projects in other countries including Senegal and Uzbekistan, said Ahmad Abdullah Khamis Al Shamsi, the fund's deputy projects director.
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