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Mar. 16 - UAE agriculture technology start-up Pure Harvest Smart Farms has raised $50 million via sukuk, or Islamic bonds, the first time an early-stage company in the region has secured venture capital through debt on the market, its chief executive said on Monday.

It also raised $10 million in equity capital in January, founder and CEO Sky Kurtz told Reuters.

The combined $60 million capital will be used to build two “high-tech hybrid greenhouses” in the United Arab Emirates to produce tomatoes, currently the firm’s main product, and leafy greens in year-round warmth and sunshine.

The financing will also allow the company to retrofit an existing facility for berry production in the UAE and build a tomato production facility in Saudi Arabia in partnership with the National Agricultural Development Company (NADEC), 20% owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Pure Harvest’s overall production will be around 75 metric tonnes per week by June, up from between 10 and 14 tonnes now, Kurtz said.

The $50 million three-year sukuk issue has a coupon of 8%, with 7% payment-in-kind at maturity. It also has embedded warrants that investors can exercise, subject to certain events, to take equity in the company.

The issuance was arranged by Shuaa Capital and anchored by investments from Franklin Templeton and Sancta Capital.

“This is a company that is by far the most advanced agtech player in the region,” said Ahmad Alanani of Sancta Capital, adding it has intellectual property that is “very defensible”.

The company aims eventually to export its produce, but Kurtz said it had a “long way to go” before it covers imports in the Gulf, where around 80-90% of fresh produce is currently imported.

Pure Harvest is planning to return to capital markets in less than three months with an instrument to complete a 39 million euro ($47 million) multi-crop project in Kuwait.

The company has raised total commitments of $216 million, of which $151.5 million is in various forms of debt and the rest is equity, including incentives from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), which Kurtz said were “substantial”, without specifying.

Pure Harvest expects to enter markets outside the region next year or in 2023 and is in discussions to build projects in Southeast Asia in partnership with a wealthy individual from the Philippines, Kurtz said. (Reuters)

Mar. 16 - Australia’s former finance minister Mathias Cormann on Friday announced he won the race to lead the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), disappointing climate activists who said he has blocked efforts to reduce emissions.

Cormann takes over as the OECD enters the final stretch of one of its highest profile missions: steering global talks to rewrite rules for taxing cross border commerce for the first time in a generation.

Cormann won a tight race, narrowly beating the Swedish politician and former European Union trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who went into the final vote with broad support from most European countries.

“Earlier today I learned that the Selection Committee will recommend to the OECD Council that I be appointed as next Secretary-General of the OECD,” Cormann said in a statement.

He said the OECD would stay focused on maximising the strength of the economic recovery from COVID-19, to promote ambitious action on climate change and work on finalising a multilateral approach to digital taxation.

Born in Belgium before migrating to Australia in 1996, Cormann has said the OECD must provide leadership on climate change, adding that the targets set in the 2015 Paris Agreement were a foundation to build upon.

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the election of Cormann demonstrated Canberra’s global standing.

“This is a great honour for Mathias who has worked tirelessly over several months to engage with leaders, senior ministers and officials of OECD member nations from Europe, Asia and the Americas,” Morrison said in an emailed statement.

Environmental activists expressed bitter disappointment at his victory.

Last week, campaign groups sent a letter to OECD noting that as Australia’s finance minister, Cormann abolished the country’s carbon pricing scheme, failed to commit to a net-zero emissions target, and maintained fossil fuel subsidies.

At that time, the Australian government “persistently failed to take effective action to reduce emissions at home and has consistently acted as a blocker within international forums”.

“We have little confidence in Cormann’s ability to ensure the OECD is a leader in tackling the climate crisis, when he has an atrocious record on the issue,” Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, said. (Reuters)

Mar. 16 - Afghan peace talks, now stalled in Qatar, should be rotated to other venues, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates said, indicating the Qatari hosts had not pushed hard enough for the Taliban to reduce violence.

Talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have been held in Qatar since last year, after the United States agreed to withdraw its troops. But violence has increased and the government accuses the militants of failing to meet obligations to reduce attacks.

Ambassador Javid Ahmad said peace talks should not be held in one fixed location, but rotate among venues in Europe, Asia, the Middle East or Afghanistan itself. He later told Reuters his comments reflected his personal view and not that of the Afghan government.

The Taliban, which opened an office in Qatar in 2013, were too “comfortable” there, he said. “We want the Taliban to get out of their comfort zone.”

“The Qataris could have used its role as a host to play a more active and decisive role in pushing the Taliban to reduce violence or declare a ceasefire,” Ahmad said. “They have not properly used their leverage, as a host to the Taliban ..., to push the group’s leaders to declare a ceasefire or to visibly reduce violence.”

Qatar’s government communications office said Doha was committed to supporting Afghans by hosting the talks, and would like to see a reduction in violence leading “to continued peace and security in the country”.

“The fact that representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban are still at the table shows that the negotiations are working,” it said.

Russia will hold a conference on Afghanistan this week, while Turkey hosts talks next month as the United States seeks to shake-up the process, proposing an interim administration.

Ahmad said Afghanistan’s “participatory government” had “the capacity to absorb the Taliban and ex-combatants” but that the only way to achieve a transition of power was through elections.

The Taliban have said they are committed to the peace negotiations.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration signed a troop withdrawal deal with the Taliban in February 2020 under which all international forces were expected to leave the country by May 1.

However, violence has risen and NATO officials say some conditions of the deal, including the Taliban cutting ties with international militant groups, have not been met, which the Taliban disputes. (Reuters)

Mar. 16 - China said on Monday it will simplify visa applications for foreign nationals who have been inoculated with Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines, its latest small step towards normalising international travel.

Vaccinated passengers travelling to China by air will still need to show negative tests as under current rules, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, according to an official transcript of a daily briefing. The transcript did not provide further details on how visa applications would be simplified.

Travellers “should abide by China’s relevant regulations on quarantine and observation after entering China,” Zhao said, adding that China was willing to carry out mutual recognition of vaccination with other nations.

The Chinese embassy in the Philippines said earlier on Monday China would return to pre-pandemic visa requirements for those fully vaccinated with Chinese vaccines. On Saturday China announced streamlined visa procedures for vaccinated foreigners entering Chinese-ruled Hong Kong.

China has been exporting its vaccines mostly to emerging countries. This outreach prompted the United States, Australia, Japan and top global vaccine producer India to announce plans to distribute vaccines in Asia in a competition that has become known as “vaccine diplomacy”.

China has largely brought the coronavirus under control at home since it first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. The country recorded just five new infections on Sunday, all imported cases.

To stave off the risk of imported cases causing a resurgence in local infections, China restricts entry by foreign nationals to certain purposes, such as work, and those that are allowed in still have to undergo quarantine. (Reuters)