Agriculture

When a widespread shortage of basic foodstuffs occurred worldwide in early 2007 and 2008, global commodity prices for wheat, rice, corn and soybean roughly tripled within a matter of months. The results of these price spikes rippled around the world and led to social unrest, ranging from the hijacking of dozens of truckloads of UN humanitarian grain shipments in Africa...

Taking advantage of Brunei Darussalam’s core competencies, including its international reputation and an observant Islamic culture with strict adherence to halal standards, the country is looking to serve the growing global demand for sharia-compliant products by expanding its own stable of halal offerings. Derived from the Arabic word meaning permissible, halal is a...

While constrained by a relatively small labour pool and limited domestic resources, Brunei Darussalam’s industrial sector is nevertheless seeking to carve out a significant niche for itself in the country’s growing economy. In order to achieve a larger role for the sector going forward, the Sultanate is focusing on some of its key strengths, such as its young and well-...

The country is currently in the midst of an ambitious agricultural reform campaign designed to ease the Sultanate’s heavy reliance on foreign imports by increasing domestic output of key commodities such as rice, fish, crops and livestock. Limited by a dearth of plantable land – just 1% of Brunei Darussalam’s already small land mass is gazetted for agricultural use – the...