The work
Pre-investment assessment
Every venture, however complex, can be modelled as a spreadsheet. Rigorous financial and agronomic modelling comes first — before capital, before contracts.
Least water-cost
In arid agriculture water is not a line item; it is the business case. The scarcest input is priced first. growing its imported wheat locally would cost Egypt roughly $25 billion a year in desalinated water. The world market charges $3.9 billion for the same grain.
Scenario analysis
Assumptions are named, challenged and stress-tested — so the decision rests on what survives, not on what was hoped.
Independence
I assess ventures; I do not develop, build or operate them. The assessment has no stake in the outcome. That is what makes it worth having.
Experience
- UAETwo large-scale farms planned and set up — 300 and 1,400 hectares — including the Emirates' first wheat farm, irrigated with desalinated seawater.
- TurnaroundsRestructuring of ailing agro-industrial ventures.
- RegionsUAE, Saudi Arabia, MENA, Africa, Central & South America.
- Arid cropsPharmaceutical botanicals, CAM plantations, cactus fodder, neem, saline aquaculture, algae.
- PublicationGuest feature on the economics of water, NZZ am Sonntag (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), 2012.
- EducationDipl.-Ing. agr., Agricultural Economics, Bonn — agronomy, Kiel — law, Sorbonne.
Contact
Write to strunden@protonmail.com. The first thirty minutes are free.