BEIRUT - Qatar and Sudan Monday signed an agreement to launch a food and agricultural joint venture in Sudan that is likely to attract investments estimated at more than $1 billion, Doha-based Asharq daily reports Tuesday.The new company, named Hassad Sudan, has a capital of $100 million and will be 75%-owned by Qatar and 25% by Sudan, the paper reports citing Nasser Al Hajri, chairman and managing director of Hassad Food, a fully-owned unit of Qatar Investment Authority.
Studies of the soil are already completed, and in the first stage, the project will cover an area of 20,000 feddans (84 million square meters) while its entire area will reach 255,000 feddans, he added.
Abdul Halim Al Muta'afi, the Sudanese Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, said according to the daily, that Hassad Sudan will engage in the cultivation of such crops as wheat, corn, rice, and peanuts and will also be involved in some food processing projects