Food quest
寻找粮食

Sep 8th 2009
From the Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire

Qatar claims to have a new approach in its quest for food security
卡塔尔声称在寻求粮食安全方面有了新方法

The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has launched a venture aiming to invest in food production worldwide. The Qatari initiative claims to be distinct from similar moves by other Gulf Arab states in that it is focused on the acquisition and development of existing agribusiness companies rather than involving the lease of large tracts of farmland. These large-scale land-lease deals have attracted criticism on the grounds that they could impair the rights of existing smallholders and damage the host country’s own food security.
卡塔尔投资局（QIA）出台了一套投资计划，瞄准全世界范围内的粮食生产业。卡塔尔的这套新方案与其它阿拉伯海湾国家推出的类似举措又有截然不同之处：它关注于收购并发展现有的农业公司，而非租用大量农田。这些大面积的租用土地合约已引发口诛笔伐，皆因许多人认为，这些合约可能会削弱现有的小农业主的权利，损坏东道主国家自身的粮食安全。

Hassad Food, established by the QIA last year, has recently announced plans to invest US$500m in buying stakes in agricultural companies around the world as part of the government’s strategy to secure adequate supply of food at reasonable prices. Qatar, like most of its Gulf Arab peers, depends heavily on imported food, buying some 95% of its requirements from abroad. Hassad’s chairman, Nasser Mohamed al-Hajri, said that the company was in talks with half a dozen agricultural firms, including ones in Argentina and Brazil, which are willing to offer the Qatari firm a stake in their businesses.
卡塔尔投资局去年创立的HASSAD粮食公司，最近宣布计划投资5亿美元，来购买全球各大农业公司的股份，作为政府确保以合理的价格供应适量粮食的部分战略。与大部分阿拉伯海湾国家一样，卡塔尔也严重依赖进口粮食，95%的需求量得从国外进口。HASSAD公司的主席Nasser Mohamed al-Hajri先生表示，该公司正与愿意出售给他们一些股份的6家包括阿根廷与巴西国家在内的农业公司进行会谈。

The surge in world food prices in 2007 and 2008 and the introduction of export restrictions by some countries on certain commodities impelled Gulf countries to develop new strategies for ensuring food security. Companies from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, for example, have leased farmland in Sudan and Pakistan, among other countries, to produce food. However, Hassad does not view direct leasing of land as the best strategy: Mr Hajri explained that leasing deals are not always “win-win situations, and we don’t want to be in a situation where the rich are taking away food and land of the poor”.
2007和2008年间，世界食品价格激增，一些国家对特定的商品出口设限，迫使海湾国家出台新政策，已确保粮食安全。例如，沙特阿拉伯和阿联酋的许多公司已租用了苏丹和巴基斯坦国的土地，生产粮食。但是，HASSAD并不认为直接租地乃上上之策：HAJRI先生解释说，租地并不总能产生“双赢的局面，我们并不想处于那种富人抢走穷人的粮食与土地的局面。”

Hassad’s focus is instead on investing in existing agricultural businesses and exporting the produce to Qatar where needed. In the process, the company aims to create an additional source of profit, besides ensuring food security for the Qatari population. Mr Hajri said that the current economic crisis had created a lot of opportunities to invest in financially distressed companies. Hassad plans to develop its business in three stages. Initially it is focusing on companies that produce basic food items, like meat, wheat, rice, sugar, soya and animal feeds. In the second stage, it will extend its operations to fruits and vegetable farming, and in the third, it will start marketing and packaging produce under its own brand. Hassad also plans to invest heavily inside Qatar in developing poultry farms and setting up greenhouses to grow vegetables.
相反，HASSAD的焦点则是向现有的农业公司进行投资，并向卡塔尔国家缺粮的地方输送粮食。公司的目标是：在这一过程中，除了能够确保卡塔尔人民的粮食安全之外，还能产生另外一条获利的途径。HAJRI先生称，当前的经济危机已经产生了大量向饱受经济摧残的国家投资的机会。HASSAD计划按三步曲来发展其业务。首先，该公司将关注于那些生产肉，小麦，大米，粮，大豆以及动物饲料等基础食品的公司。其次，HASSAD将公司的业务拓展至水果及蔬菜种植业；第三，他们将以自己的品牌开始推广和包装这些产品。对卡塔尔国内许多发展中的家禽农场，HASSAD还计划加大投资力度，并设立温室以种植蔬菜。

Poor farmers
贫穷的农民

Starved of proper investment, agriculture throughout the Middle East has developed little and remains generally small-scale and inefficient. Attempts at large projects have more often than not resulted in a huge wastage of resources. Libya’s Great Man-made River project, designed to irrigate huge swathes of arable land to enable the country to become self-sufficient in food, has, arguably, become a monumental white elephant, while Saudi Arabia, after having poured billions into the cultivation of wheat has finally given up on the idea, realising that it was far too expensive and, more importantly, used up far too much water, for cultivation to continue. The returns on Egypt’s Toshka development in the desert to the west of the Aswan High Dam have thus far been paltry compared with the huge sums invested.
因投资不当，整个中东地区的农业尚无进展，并且，普遍规模较小，供应不足。在大型项目方面所进行的尝试往往导致资源的大举浪费。旨在灌溉大片可耕地，以保证国家粮食自给的利比亚大人工河项目（Libya’s Great Man-made River project）极具争议性地成为了一堆极贵而无用之物；沙特阿拉伯在种植小麦项目上豪掷数十亿后，意识到该项目着实耗资巨大，更重要的是，继续种植会耗水无数，最后，该种植计划以流产告终。埃及的托西卡（Toshka ）沙漠向西的阿斯旺水泵（Aswan High Dam ）发展项目的收益与巨额投资相比，简直微不足道。

The poor record of agricultural investment within the Middle East begs the question of how effective the investors from the region will be in their farming ventures elsewhere in the world. As yet there are few concrete examples on which to base a judgment. It is not even clear how many of the mega-land-lease deals that have been reported, involving Gulf countries in Asia, Africa and eastern Europe, have actually been concluded as firm contracts. Many of these deals are in fact options, with the onus on the investors to present firm development plans and to deposit downpayments before they actually secure title to the land.
在中东国家的惨淡农业投资记录让人们质疑这些国家的投资者将如何有效地在全世界开展其农业投资计划。到现在也找不到具体例子做出判断。眼下，人们甚至都搞不清，已报导的海湾国家在亚洲，非洲以欧洲东部的大批租地协议当中，哪些的确已签订合同。许多协议实际上还只是些选择，投资者有义务提交公司发展计划，并支付定金后，才能实际拥有土地所有权。

In light of the doubts about the feasibility of the land-lease approach, the course chosen by Qatar’s Hassad would appear to have much to recommend it.
鉴于人们对租地方案可行性所持的怀疑态度，卡塔尔Hassad选择的新方案似乎有很多可取之处。