Qatar dairy farm plan on track
A QATARI food processing company will be importing cows from Germany and Australia by mid-2018 as part of plans to build a farm in Qatar with the aim of supplying 45 per cent of the local market’s dairy needs, said an official.
The farm will be built on a 500,000-sq-m area equipped with the “highest technology” for milk production, Mohamed Ali Al-Kuwari, business development manager, Gulf Food Production, was quoted as saying in a Gulf Times report.
Al-Kuwari added that they have already started this project and hope to finish it in the middle of next year.
Saudi coffee expo a hit
EXHIBITORS, investors and importers from more than 30 countries visited the recently concluded fourth edition of International Coffee and Chocolate Exhibition in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Held at Riyadh International Conventions and Exhibition Center, the event featured a B2B section for the businessmen, investors, importers and representatives of international companies aiming to raise investment in the Saudi market.
The total sales of coffee and chocolate in Saudi Arabia exceeded SR700 million ($186 million) in 2016 with 12 per cent increase comparing with the last year. The number of factories working in this field reached 30 factories A total of 30 factories produce 28,000 tons of related products yearly but the Saudi market consumes 45,000 tonnes yearly.
France tops world FSI
FRANCE has remained at the top of the 2017 Food Sustainability Index (FSI), thanks to high scores across the FSI’s three pillars of food loss and waste, sustainable agriculture, and nutritional challenges.
The FSI ranks 34 countries according to their food system sustainability. These countries represent over 85 per cent of global GDP and two-thirds of the global population. The FSI was developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit with the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition Foundation. Top-performing countries in the FSI also include Japan, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Italy, South Korea and Hungary. Although high-income countries tend to perform well in the FSI, there are several outliers. Despite having the highest GDP per head, the UAE ranks last, while Ethiopia, the poorest country in the FSI, ranks a respectable 12th.
