Business

New Zealand to export sheep to Saudi Arabia for research

Pregnant ewes and lamb will be shipped by air freight, with some to be cross-bred with Awassi, a fat-tailed sheep breed found in Saudi Arabia.

Tom Arnold

March 08, 2014

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New Zealand will export a research flock of sheep to Saudi Arabia this year under a breeding project aimed at bolstering the kingdom’s livestock supplies.

The country stopped worldwide exports of sheep for slaughter in 2003 but has been seeking to grow its export of the animal for breeding purposes more recently.

“We’ve just signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to send a research flock later this year,” said Nathan Guy, the New Zealand minister for primary industries, during a visit to the GCC last week. “There will be a flock of research sheep going up to Saudi Arabia later this year. Commercial decisions have to be made on the numbers.”

Pregnant ewes and lamb will be shipped by air freight. Some will be cross-bred with Awassi, a fat-tailed sheep breed found in Saudi Arabia.

“We will monitor which breeds perform best in the climatic conditions here,” said Mr Guy.

Home to about 30 million sheep, New Zealand currently exports only about 400 of them every year for breeding. Saudi Arabia imports millions of cattle every year to keep up with meat demand from its rising middle class. An increasing number of the sheep imports are for breeding purposes as the kingdom seeks to reduce its reliance on exports in the longer term.

The New Zealand deal forms part of a US$6 million investment by that government in an agribusiness service centre in Dammam, eastern Saudi Arabia.

“The farm will be a model for vertical integration, from cropping to fresh meat supply to the local market,” said Mr Guy. “It will be a full showcase of New Zealand agritech including technical services, farming systems, animal health, on-farm equipment, genetics and farm expertise.”

The initiative is a cornerstone of New Zealand’s goal to deepen its agricultural export base.

“We will continue to add value to our food products,” said Mr Guy. “We can only feed about 40 million people, so what we will continue to do over time is export value-added goods and services.”

In a sign of growing food security links between New Zealand and the Middle East, Fonterra, a New Zealand dairy company, last week opened an ingredients warehouse in Jebel Ali, Dubai, to support growing demand for dairy products in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. The facility will act as a distribution hub for Fonterra.

New Zealand exported about NZ$1.6 billion (Dh4.97bn) in primary products to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman last year.

tarnold@thenational.ae

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Bert van Marwijk factfile

Born: May 19 1952
Place of birth: Deventer, Netherlands
Playing position: Midfielder

Teams managed:
1998-2000 Fortuna Sittard
2000-2004 Feyenoord
2004-2006 Borussia Dortmund
2007-2008 Feyenoord
2008-2012 Netherlands
2013-2014 Hamburg
2015-2017 Saudi Arabia
2018 Australia

Major honours (manager):
2001/02 Uefa Cup, Feyenoord
2007/08 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord
World Cup runner-up, Netherlands

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UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves. 

The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

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“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

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The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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