Qatar to build sugar refinery to avoid boycott disruptions: sources | Reuters

Qatar to build sugar refinery to avoid boycott disruptions: sources | Reuters:

Qatar is building a sugar refinery in a bid to avoid supply disruptions after neighboring Gulf Arab states severed economic and political ties with Doha more than a year ago, sources say.

In normal trading conditions, building a refinery in Qatar would make little commercial sense because of depressed sugar prices, surplus world stocks and the presence of regional refineries that could provide supplies, the sources said.

But they said Qatar, with its huge financial resources generated from gas exports and as host of the 2022 World Cup, wanted to avoid any shortfall for the desert nation that depends heavily on imports to feed its 2.7 million population.