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By Wudineh Zenebe
Posted to the web on November 30, 2009 |
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November 30, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) – The agricultural machinery which Saudi Star Agricultural Development Plc, Mohammed Ali Al-Amoudi’s new company, procured from Caterpillar for 80 million dollars has arrived at the port of Djibouti.
The machinery includes construction machinery and 300 tractors with their spare parts. It will all be transported to the Gambella Regional State, where Saudi Star’s farm is located. This will happen within two months, starting two weeks from now, according to Alemayehu Mengesha, managing director of Ries Engineering, Caterpillar’s local agent.
Saudi Star, established on August 20, 2009, with a capital of 500 million Br, had requested the Investors Support Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development(MoARD), to give it 200,000ht of land. It was granted only 10,000ht in Abobo, Gambella, with a promise of more land based on performance.
Esayas Kebede, head of the directorate, said that his office and Saudi Star had talked about how the latter could begin operations quickly and with full capacity. He said that the machinery that has been imported has the capacity to handle 60,000ht.
“We will give them the [additional] land in the same area once they have started operations,” he said.
Saudi Star’s long-term plan is to develop 500,000ht. The company’s other interest areas for land are in the Benishangul Gumuz Regional State and the Agew Awi Zone of the Amhara Regional State. It promotes itself as the first rice producer in Ethiopia, but it also intends to grow maize, wheat and sugarcane.
Of the 70 million hectares of arable land in Ethiopia, only 15 million hectares are said to be occupied by subsistence farmers and small-scale cash crop growers. However, some of the land which has already been cleared for Saudi Star’s farm included medium-dense, indigenous forest with juniper and other trees rare in Ethiopia due to deforestation.
MoARD says that there are currently only 4,000 tractors involved in agriculture in the country.
Saudi Star will market its products locally and abroad, according to Haile Assegdie, the company’s managing director.
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