ABU DHABI: Gulf states are changing tack in their multibillion-dollar search for food security. With their farming projects in some of the poorest African nations sometimes arousing local hostility, Arab investors are turning to those developed countries that comfortably produce more food than they consume.

UAE-based agricultural firm Al-Dahra has chosen this path in March, buying eight agricultural companies for $400 million in Serbia, a major food exporter where public attitudes to foreign-owned farming may be less sensitive.

Projects in Europe, North America and Australasia tend to be more expensive and offer less scope to build vast estates like in Africa. But they also present fewer political problems and less risk for the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait which all need to feed growing populations.