Romania

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.

Since 1999, The Ingleby Company has bought about 17 farms. The company runs just under 20,000ha of land with 130,000 stock units, most of which are sheep and cattle.