A gala dinner event marking 50 years of partnership between four giant companies from Norway and Doha-based Qafco was held at the National Museum of Qatar on Monday.
About 250 distinguished guests gathered in attendance, including the Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs and Qatar Petroleum President and CEO HE Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi, Norway’s Minister of Trade and Industry Torbjørn Røe Isaksen, and Qafco CEO Abdulrahman M al-Suwaidi to reflect on the successes over the past half-century and the propitious future for the Qatari-Norwegian industrial partnership.
Guests and dignitaries were also treated to a special performance by Norwegian artist Eva Weel Skram. The function not only commemorated the semicentennial collaboration, but also celebrated the strengthening of a continued, strategic alliance between the two countries to further develop over the next 50 years to come.
After an abundance of gas resources were found in Qatar in the sixties, Yara, back then a part of Norsk Hydro, signed a joint venture agreement with Qatar to build a production plant to produce ammonia and urea in Mesaieed.
This led to the truly pioneering establishment of Qafco or Qatar Fertiliser Company Progressive to both nations, the formation of Qafco was one of the first large-scale venture into the petrochemical sector and was also the first major investment a Norwegian company had contracted abroad.
Today, Qafco is a joint venture owned 25% by Yara and 75% by Industries Qatar (IQ). Qafco is operating six integrated ammonia-urea plants.
With an annual capacity of 3.8mn tonnes of ammonia and 5.6mn tonnes of urea, Qafco is a key player in the global fertiliser market and one of the largest exporters of urea.
Yara is a major off taker of high-quality urea from Muntajat, the company that markets, sells and distributes major volumes of fertiliser out of Qatar.
Svein Tore Holsether, president and CEO, Yara International, said, “Half of the world’s population depends on fertiliser to have food on the table. The contribution from Qafco to global food security has been very important, and today the products are exported worldwide. We are committed to working towards sustainable mineral fertiliser production.
“Yara has taken the lead in developing digital farming tools for precision farming and we work closely with partners throughout the whole food value chain to develop more climate-friendly crop nutrition solutions.”
Today the collaboration has expanded into food production. On Monday, Yara, Hassad Food, and Qafco opened the first high-tech greenhouse in Al Sheehaniya to support efforts to increase food production in Qatar.
The partnership seeks to increase agricultural yields, in line with Qatar’s aim to achieve self-sufficiency in a reliable and sustainable manner, with a focus on vegetables. Yara is a global leader in crop nutrition and fertigation.
The organisation offers best-practice farming application methods and leading technologies to support the Qataris in their effort to enable sustainable, local farming of high-quality food products. “Our joint effort will drive Qatari food-production at industrial scale with world class technology. This can inspire the rest of the food-industry, demonstrating what is possible with true collaboration,” expressed Holsether said.
Yara International ASA was divested from Hydro in 2004, making it a sheer fertiliser business. Hence Hydro’s ownership in Qafco was passed on to Yara.
Crown Prince Haakon said, “Tonight we celebrate 50 years of successful business cooperation between Qatar and Norway. Although our two countries are far apart geographically, it is great to see the extent to which our cooperation has expanded over the past 50 years. Today, Norwegian companies are engaged in a variety of Qatari industrial sectors, including the energy, maritime, and defence sectors, as well as aluminium production and agriculture”.
HE the Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Torbj?rn R?e Isaksen, Minister of Trade and Industry, Norway at the gala dinner.
