Davao Oriental Province in the Philippines’ Mindanao region has offered 100,000ha of agricultural land to Saudi Arabian investors who visited the province last month.
The Saudi delegation were specifically interested in corn and rice production, according to Business World, and said the Saudi government was keen to invest in agriculture in Mindanao.
“We are very much interested to know more about your local varieties of rice and corn and we also will like to know about the availability of lands here for rice and corn production,” said Ahmed AlSadhan of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and head of the Philippines delegation.
In a statement on the offer, Governor Corazon Malanyaon said the province must shift from subsistence farming to enterprise farming.
She said the region was suitable for growing not just corn and rice, but mango, banana, coconut, cassava, rubber, palm oil, coffee, abaca and livestock production.
Saudi Arabia has been exploring international agricultural investment ranging from Africa to East Asia in an effort to secure food supplies. The price of food in the arable land-poor country is largely dependent on imports.
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