Riyadh -- Saudi Arabia is eager to secure its needs of food through investments in farmland overseas. Agriculture Minister, Fahd Balghunaim, declared this week that "The goal is to support supply of main goods which cannot be produced locally like rice and sugar or which require a lot of water in production like wheat, malt and fodder”.

Saudi Arabia is heavily reliant on food imports. Two years ago it abandoned its wheat cultivation program due to dwindling water resources and is now trying, with the help of private Saudi investors, to secure farmland in Africa and elsewhere. State-owned Saudi Industrial Development Fund is granting financing facilities to firms exploring agricultural investments abroad.

The policy has been categorically criticized by foreign media as land-grabbing, however the minister said investing in farmland production abroad has no political goals in the meantime the host countries were also benefiting from the investments.