Hungary

A senior government official in Serenje has urged the Zambia Development Agency to quicken the process of facilitating investment inflow in the 155,000-hectare Nansanga farm block in Central Province.

La grande et fertile plaine hongroise attire les spéculateurs étrangers. Mais le premier ministre Viktor Orbán privilégie ses amis, en leur permettant d’acquérir de très grandes propriétés

The Zambia Development Agency has short-listed 10 local and foreign companies (such as Chayton Capital or Pro Alia Investment) which expressed interest in the development of Nansanga farm block (155 000 ha) in Serenje.

Of the 16 applications received, only six were from Zambia while the rest were from foreign investors from the UK, Egypt, China, Hungary, Mauritius, Switzerland and South Africa.

Hungary holds the Presidency of the European Union. But it is currently risking conflict with the EU. It has forbidden sales of agricultural land to foreigners.

The Internal Market and Services Directorate General (DG MARKT) has made a written proposal to the European Commission to approve a request by Hungary to extend its moratorium on purchases of farmland by foreigners for another three years until 2014.

La Hongrie veut avec ce moratoire éviter les transactions spéculatives, en raison de la faible valeur marchande de ses terrains comparée aux prix pratiqués en Europe de l'Ouest.

Parliament yesterday approved a resolution calling on the government to get the EU to extend a ban on the purchase of farmland by foreigners for another three years. The current moratorium will end in 2011.

Fears of a land grab by wealthier western EU countries prompted Hungary, and most of the members that joined in 2004, to negotiate temporary derogations in the case of agricultural land. The derogation is due to expire in May 2011.

Farming overseas is a global trend. So to find out more about this phenomenon, Mike Gallagher meets Andrew Hunter - a British farmer working vast landholdings in Hungary and Serbia.

Japan is considering providing loans from a government-owned bank for companies to purchase and lease farmland abroad, Munemitsu Hirano, counsellor at the international affairs department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said.

The largest fund to invest in European farmland will be launched today, signalling investors' growing appetite for alternative ways to profit from a long-term rise in agricultural commodity demand and prices. The farmland fund, set up by Germany-based Palmer Capital Partners and UK-based Bidwells, is expected to raise about €300m ($425m) to buy arable land in Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic. It will also invest in western Europe.