Although the initial focus of Middle East-based investors in agriculture was the acquisition of land assets in developing and middle-income countries, a careful analysis of the sector reveals that the best investments may actually be located within highly developed economies.
The agricultural land investment sector has grown in prominence in recent years, due to concerns about food security in the Middle East and North Africa, but also because investments in land provide a good hedge against inflation, provide income, diversify portfolios and are resilient across economic cycles. However, early investments in poor and middle-income countries have often disappointed.
Additionally, GCC-based investors who focused their investments on less-developed countries received a significant amount of bad publicity from the global media, due to concerns about the potential impact on local ecosystems and the ability of local populations in target locations to achieve positive gains from these investments.
