ISLAMABAD: Basam Qalanoo, partner at Dubai-based Caballero Foods, visited Fongrow Agriculture and Livestock Industries in Khanewal city to explore opportunities in corporate agriculture in Pakistan and promote “sustainable supply chains in the global meat market”, Radio Pakistan reported on Sunday.
Pakistan set up the Special Investment Promotion Council (SIFC), a hybrid civilian-military forum, last year to attract foreign funds in agriculture, mining, information technology, defense production and energy sectors as the South Asian country grapples with a balance of payments crisis and needs billions of dollars of foreign exchange to plug its current fiscal year’s trade deficit and repay its external debt.
SIFC’s agriculture initiatives are managed by FonGrow, part of the Fauji Foundation Investment Group, run by former Pakistani army officers.
“Partners from Dubai-based Caballero Foods visited Fongrow Agriculture and Livestock Industries in Khanewal,” Radio Pakistan reported on Sunday. “The objective of the visit was to explore sustainable supply chains in the global meat market and to boost bilateral trade ties with Gulf countries.”
During the visit, company executives were briefed on the in vitro fertilization process used by VonGlow, in which eggs are fertilized outside a cow’s uterus in a laboratory, resulting in multiple offspring produced from eggs from healthy animals.
“I would be happy to be an ambassador for not only meat but all Pakistani products because I believe in the products they are producing,” Kakanoo said.
In an interview with Arab News last year, the FonGrow CEO said Pakistan is seeking up to $6 billion in corporate agriculture investments from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain over the next three to five years to bring 1.5 million acres of previously uncultivated land under cultivation and mechanize 50 million existing acres of farmland across the country.
“We estimate it to be around $5 billion to $6 billion. [investment from Gulf nations] “It will take five years, up from the initial three years,” Maj. Gen. Tahir Aslam (ret.), managing director and chief executive officer of Fongrow, told Arab News in an interview.
He declined to provide details on the breakdown of investments from each country.
The CEO said the company has partnered with several Saudi Arabian companies, including Al-Dhahara, Saleh and Al-Khorayef, to attract investment in the corporate agriculture sector.
Aslam said his company is also working on various investment models for corporate agriculture, including joint ventures with companies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
