An official Bahraini delegation will travel to Sudan on June 25 to take over 42,000 hectares of land granted by the Sudanese government for agricultural use, animal breeding and fodder production.

"We value the trust Bahrain's leadership has placed in Sudan and their directives to exploit large areas of arable land that generate high-yield returns," Sudan's Ambassador to Bahrain Abdulla Ahmed Othman told our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej.

He said his country welcomed Bahraini investments - a Sudanese initiative to boost Arab food security launched by Sudanese President Omar Al Beshir at an economic forum in Riyadh in January.

Under Sudan's investment laws, foreign investors can employ local or foreign labour and don't need to have Sudanese partners.

They are also exempted from customs duties and taxes for at least five years from the date the agricultural project is launched and may reach 20 years in sovereign investments, such as oil and minerals, Mr Othman said.

Bahrain's initiative to invest in agricultural and animal production projects comes amid global challenges of food security, of which United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation have repeatedly warned. – TradeArabia News Service