CAIRO: United Arab Emirates' Janan agricultural investment firm plans to sign a deal with Egypt that will deliver the company 100,000 feddans (103 acres) of land with wheat, corn and feed, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported late Tuesday. The deal comes as the Egyptian government continues its push to get foreign investors to enter the market despite the ongoing global financial crisis. Janan expects to ink the deal with Egypt's Agriculture Ministry next week for the project, which will extend through 2015, the agency said. Janan has already invested $320 million in East Oweinat to grow 6,000 feddans (6227 acres) with green feed and has inaugurated an animal feed plant in the area. According to MENA, the land is located in the southwestern region of Egypt in the agricultural development of East Oweinat. All of the land in this area is farmland for consumption within Egypt, but in recent years the country has not been as self-sufficient due to a burgeoning population. According to Jenan, the project is expected to produce approximately 350,000 tons of wheat annually for consumption within Egypt, a move the government hopes will help reduce its need for the importation of food from abroad. Egypt is the globe's leading wheat importer and consumes some 14 million tons of wheat each year. Much of that food comes from abroad. One of the main reasons for the need for wheat is the country's bread subsidy system the poor depend upon and disruptions to the program have led to a number of violent protests in the recent past. Calls for self-sufficiency in wheat production have grown immensely this year. In related news, the quality of the country's grain imports since mid-May and has ordered the re-export of around 150,000 tons of Russian, Ukrainian and Australian wheat, citing poor quality. BM
