Eleven contracts or agreements in principle were signed at the end of the Royal economic mission to Qatar. Among them, the Liège-based biopharmaceutical company Kitozyme is celebrating an agreement to sell chitosan-based products, a plant extract used in weight control, cardiovascular and digestive health treatments, under its own name for the first time in Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
In Qatar, the University of Liège also established an expensive project to enrich foods with proteins. This research uses synthetic urea, a by-product from the gas industry to fortify protein-deficient foods such as cassava. The objective is to meet the food needs of poor countries, but also to develop a GMO-free food industry in Qatar where food is imported from neighbouring regions, explained Pascal Leroy, Dean of the Veterinary Faculty at ULg.
Qafco, the world's leading urea producer, currently uses this by-product primarily for agricultural fertilizers. The Qatari Royal Family's links to the Liège region have helped speed up the project, said an intermediary at the Belga agency. The family has a private property in Malmedy in the Liège region where the current Emir spent some of his childhood. Qatar has already recently invested in projects such as AS Eupen and Galler chocolates.
