São Paulo – Hassad Food, a food company that belongs to the Qatari sovereign fund, intends to purchase a sugar and ethanol plant in Brazil. The information was disclosed this weekend by the president of the company, Nasser Bin Mohamed Al-Hajri, according to the Arab country’s official news agency, the Qatar News Agency (QNA).
According to the executive, the project, selected among six ones, will have capacity for producing 25 million tonnes of sugar per year. According to Hajiri, negotiations should be completed in two months.
He also informed that 70% of the plant’s capacity should be used for sugar manufacturing, and the remaining 30% should be geared toward production of biofuels. "We have looked into several projects, but chose this one because most sugar plants in Brazil produce both sugar and biofuels," said Hajri, according to the QNA.
The executive claimed that Hassad Food has purchased a stake in a poultry farming project in Brazil that may meet 60% of the Qatari demand for chicken and eggs. "We have entered the Brazilian poultry industry mainly because of the low cost of feed in the country," he declared, also according to the QNA.
In May, Ahmad Al-Sayed, the CEO of Qatar Holding, the executive arm of the Qatari sovereign fund, told ANBA that the group was seeking business opportunities in Brazil, and that one of the main interests was the agricultural sector.
The sovereign fund, which is called the Qatar Investment Authority, manages funds obtained by the country from the oil and gas industry. The funds are invested in different businesses as a means of diversifying national sources of income.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
