Black Earth Farming

Japanese translation of article of GRAIN, "Pension funds: key players in the global farmland grab"

Pension funds may be one of the few classes of land grabbers that people can pull the plug on, by sheer virtue of the fact that it is their money.

Land deals, whether as direct purchases or long-term leases, are being brokered in poor countries by advanced capitalist countries and their TNCs

Black Earth Farming a Swedish firm which controls more than 300,000 hectares of Russian farmland, has reported yields of some crops down by more than a half thanks to Russia's "scorching" heat

Analysts and farming executives say the crisis is likely to accelerate the consolidation of Russian agriculture already under way, allowing big conglomerates to swoop on struggling small farmers.

Black Earth Farming Ltd., which controls an area of Russian farmland four times the size of New York City, plans to start exporting grain and begin forward sales with traders and fertilizer suppliers.

Acheter des terres arables à l'étranger est devenu un investissement stratégique. Va-t-on vers un dépeçage de certains pays pauvres ? Reportage "Paroles du Monde" avec des représentants d'Agter, Le Monde et Agrogénération.

Swedish company Black Earth Farming (BEF) since 2006 has bought 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) of Russian farmland after the government finally allowed land to be privatised after decades of state ownership.

It isn't often you sit down with a fund manager and begin the interview by discussing their new film.

En plein coeur des Terres noires russes, une moissonneuse-batteuse dernier cri émerge d'un champ de tournesols grillés par le soleil, sous l'oeil satisfait d'Alexandre Averianov, employé de la holding suédoise Black Earth Farming (BEF).

"We are seeing a land grab bigger than anywhere else in the world, and it has attracted a mighty cast of characters," says Kingsmill Bond, chief strategist at Troika Dialog, a Moscow brokerage firm.

Investors are pouring billions into Russian agribusiness—and trying to reverse decades of Soviet mismanagement.