Several leading companies from South Korea specialising in agriculture and smart farming have presented solutions that could assist Qatar in its food security and self-sufficiency initiatives.
The solutions were raised during the ‘Qatar-Korea Smart Farm Initiative Seminar’ held recently in Doha through the collaboration of the South Korean embassy in Qatar, the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and the Ministry of Municipality.
In a statement to Gulf Times, South Korean ambassador LEE Joon-Ho said South Korea and Qatar have been “good partners,” especially in the construction and energy fields, for the last five decades.
“Nowadays, the two countries’ co-operation is expanding into new fields. I believe food security and smart farm cooperation can be prominent fields for our future co-operation. And I think this smart farm initiative event is a good starting point.
“Many Korean companies are equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and have already achieved great success in their smart farming projects even in countries with harsh weather conditions. And they also have very good experiences working with Middle East countries. I really hope this initiative event is a stepping stone towards the two countries’ further collaboration on joint smart farm projects,” the ambassador pointed out.
In his welcome address during the event, KOTRA director Hanseung Kim expressed his appreciation to HE the Minister of Municipality Dr Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Subaie and to the South Korean ambassador, as well as to Dr Massoud al-Marri, the director of Food Security Department at the Ministry of Municipality, who also spoke at the seminar.
According to Kim, trade between Qatar and South Korea exceeded “$10bn in 2021,” citing both countries’ “very successful” business relationships in various sectors, such as the energy sector, and plant and construction projects.
“South Korea is one of Qatar’s most important trading partners, as well as one of the country’s main LNG buyers. South Korea is also participating in the North Field expansion project alongside the supply of LNG ships to Qatar.
“Now, we believe it is the right time to expand the cooperation between the two friendly countries and work on new sectors, such as agriculture and smart farms,” said Kim, who stressed that the smart farm sector is growing rapidly worldwide.
Kim said the seminar emphasises how smart farms can be adapted to maximise productivity with fewer human resources to reach the ultimate goal of self-sufficiency in food and food security.
“In this seminar, we have a South Korean professional smart farm consortium and organisations to talk more about this technology and how we can implement it in our region.
“Finally, I would like to use this opportunity and wish both friendly countries, Qatar and South Korea, a successful journey in their vision, which holds a lot of good potential for South Korean and Qatari companies,” he added.
During the first session titled ‘Smart Farm Technologies & Business Model’, the speakers included Ministry of Municipality consultant Mark Velders, POMIT director Sanghoon Yang, Nongshim Engineering manager Yongju Bae, and Algafarmtech CEO Hanmok Cho.
Speakers for the second session, ‘Korean Smart Farm Abroad Case & Recommendation for Qatar’, included MS Group director Jinwoong Kim, Korea Rural Community Corporation senior research engineer Chulsung Lee, and Agro Solution Korea director Sanghun Lee.
The solutions were raised during the ‘Qatar-Korea Smart Farm Initiative Seminar’ held recently in Doha through the collaboration of the South Korean embassy in Qatar, the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and the Ministry of Municipality.
In a statement to Gulf Times, South Korean ambassador LEE Joon-Ho said South Korea and Qatar have been “good partners,” especially in the construction and energy fields, for the last five decades.
“Nowadays, the two countries’ co-operation is expanding into new fields. I believe food security and smart farm cooperation can be prominent fields for our future co-operation. And I think this smart farm initiative event is a good starting point.
“Many Korean companies are equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and have already achieved great success in their smart farming projects even in countries with harsh weather conditions. And they also have very good experiences working with Middle East countries. I really hope this initiative event is a stepping stone towards the two countries’ further collaboration on joint smart farm projects,” the ambassador pointed out.
In his welcome address during the event, KOTRA director Hanseung Kim expressed his appreciation to HE the Minister of Municipality Dr Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Subaie and to the South Korean ambassador, as well as to Dr Massoud al-Marri, the director of Food Security Department at the Ministry of Municipality, who also spoke at the seminar.According to Kim, trade between Qatar and South Korea exceeded “$10bn in 2021,” citing both countries’ “very successful” business relationships in various sectors, such as the energy sector, and plant and construction projects.
“South Korea is one of Qatar’s most important trading partners, as well as one of the country’s main LNG buyers. South Korea is also participating in the North Field expansion project alongside the supply of LNG ships to Qatar.
“Now, we believe it is the right time to expand the cooperation between the two friendly countries and work on new sectors, such as agriculture and smart farms,” said Kim, who stressed that the smart farm sector is growing rapidly worldwide.
Kim said the seminar emphasises how smart farms can be adapted to maximise productivity with fewer human resources to reach the ultimate goal of self-sufficiency in food and food security.
“In this seminar, we have a South Korean professional smart farm consortium and organisations to talk more about this technology and how we can implement it in our region.
“Finally, I would like to use this opportunity and wish both friendly countries, Qatar and South Korea, a successful journey in their vision, which holds a lot of good potential for South Korean and Qatari companies,” he added.
During the first session titled ‘Smart Farm Technologies & Business Model’, the speakers included Ministry of Municipality consultant Mark Velders, POMIT director Sanghoon Yang, Nongshim Engineering manager Yongju Bae, and Algafarmtech CEO Hanmok Cho.
Speakers for the second session, ‘Korean Smart Farm Abroad Case & Recommendation for Qatar’, included MS Group director Jinwoong Kim, Korea Rural Community Corporation senior research engineer Chulsung Lee, and Agro Solution Korea director Sanghun Lee.