"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.
The Boerenbond Association, the largest corporate organization of farmers and operators working in agriculture in Belgium, is interested in investment opportunities in Romania's agriculture, including the possibility of buying farmlands there
Romanian officials have started to express worries about an increasing number of foreign companies buying agricultural land in Romania.
L'agriculture roumaine intéresse de plus en plus les investisseurs étrangers. Les autorités sont en train de s’en rendre compte et souhaitent prendre la situation en main.
Around one million hectares of Romania’s farmland are in foreign hands, and the interest in investing in agricultural plots is growing.
Multinationals, foreign entrepreneurs and investment funds eying Romania as a place to develop have either bought up land as a place to develop agriculture, lease or land bank.
Several national companies and even the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the capital's sovereign fund, are planning investments in agriculture in countries as diverse as Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Australia, Romania and the United States.
More than 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a gulf still exists between farm prices in eastern and western Germany which provides a "good opportunity" for investors, a boss at KTG Agrar has said.
"As more investors look into the opportunities that developed nations present there will be no need to go underground or be ashamed of these deals," said Hakan Agro's Tomar.
But company says it does not want to tarnish Saudi Arabia's image by buying farmlands abroad
Ingleby Agricultura, controlled by the Rausing family, paid EUR 8.2mn for purchasing 2,000ha of arable land in Western Romania from Danish company FirstFarms
The fund is in the process of leasing 50,000 hectares of land in Tanzania which will be complete by the end of this year and will mainly be for rice production.
