Al Dahra wants more Egyptian land: Emirati agribusiness Al Dahra is currently in negotiations to purchase up to 500k feddans of agricultural land in Egypt, Reuters reported citing two sources it said with direct knowledge of the matter. The company, which is half-owned by the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ, is in talks with the military’s National Service Projects Organization (NSPO) to acquire land in Toshka to grow wheat and corn.

The details: Al Dahra wants up to 500k feddans in phases in a direct purchase or a long-term lease agreement, the newswire reported. The price tag and timeline of the acquisition were not disclosed. The company told the newswire it would announce any new Egyptian partnerships at the “appropriate time.”

Al Dahra is no stranger to Egypt: Al Dahra currently owns 67k feddans of land in Toshka and East Owaynat and is the biggest private-sector wheat producer in Egypt. The company has sold more than 180k tons of wheat to the government over the past three years, making it GASC’s largest local private-sector supplier. Egypt signed a USD 500 mn agreement with the Abu Dhabi Exports Office in August to purchase wheat from Al Dahra.

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing: The government withdrew some of the 100k feddans Al Dahra had purchased in Toshka as part of an agricultural mega project in 2019, saying the company had fallen behind a timeline to cultivate the land.

Egypt wants to boost its wheat crop: The government aims to increase the amount of land allocated to wheat farming by 25% to 4 mn feddans next harvest season. State agencies bough around 3.4 mn tons of wheat from local farmers during this year’s harvest, down 10% from last year and lower than the 4 mn-ton target originally set for the 2023 season.

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