Romania

Attracted by the low cost of agricultural land, Farmers from elsewhere in the EU are taking the plunge to set up in Romania.

Attirés par le bas prix des terrains agricoles, de nombreux Européens n’hésitent plus à monter une exploitation en Roumanie. Ils contribuent ainsi à réinventer la culture locale, en particulier par le bio.

Romanian government considers setting up a land bank with priority in the acquisition of agricultural land to restrict the flow of foreign investments.

The countries say that they now believe their farmers are not yet ready to compete on a free land market with foreign investors

De plus en plus d’agriculteurs suisses s’installent en Roumanie, à la frontière est de l’Europe. Attirés par des prix encore dérisoires, ils achètent des domaines de plusieurs centaines d'hectares et exportent en Suisse et en Allemagne.

The six case studies compiled in this report illustrate the wide range of approaches and focus that private funds are adopting (legal structure, geography, agricultural production and operating strategies) to invest in farmland in different parts of the world.

En suivant le parcours d'un agriculteur alsacien qui veut tenter sa chance dans les terres noires de Roumanie et des fonds d'investissement qui opèrent en Ukraine, l'enquête permet une réflexion sur la fin annoncée du monde paysan tel qu'il existe aujourd'hui, en Europe de l'Est mais aussi en France.

Alongside countries like Liberia, Laos, Congo and Sierra Leone, Romania is one of the countries where foreign companies own large areas of farmland, according to a report put together by GRAIN.

Foreigners currently have more than 700,000 ha of agricultural land in Romania, representing 8.5 percent of the arable land of the country, says Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Report by HighQuest Partners for the OECD, October 2011, features 6 case studies of land grabbers: Agrica, CalyxAgro, Cazanae, Jantzen, NFD Agro and Quifel

Farmland investments may return 8 percent to 12 percent annually as global food demand increases, said the largest US pensions manager for teachers and academic researchers with $469 billion of assets.

"We are in negotiations with several foreign investment funds that are interested in buying thousands of hectares of Romanian farmland,” says analyst with DTZ Echinox.