Côte d'Ivoire

Touché au cœur durant la crise postélectorale, le premier groupe privé de la Côte d'Ivoire panse ses plaies. Mais pas seulement. Le voilà qui, déjà, réamorce sa stratégie de croissance en Afrique de l’Ouest, notamment dans l’hévéa et le palmier à huile.

The move comes after two fact-finding missions led by the foreign secretary last year found farming in the so-called dark continent "exceedingly lucrative" for Bangladeshi investors.

Même si l’ampleur des dégâts n’atteint pas encore celle des 28 Etats africains déjà durement frappés par l’accaparement des terres, il n’en demeure pas moins qu’en Côte d’ivoire, le phénomène existe.

The question of land ownership in Africa has become more pertinent as foreign investors tap a global need for food and energy security by investing in land and agricultural or biofuel projects in the developing world.

"Initially we asked the Africans how much they wanted in rent. They said it's free, just share the food with us. We made a deal that we only pay $1 per year per acre in rent. At the start we didn't promote the idea because we didn't want people to say we were grabbing land."

Liu Jianjun, a former Chinese government official who runs the Baoding-Africa business council, has contracts to farm 10,000 acres in Uganda, to build a cornflour processing factory in Kenya and for a farm project in the Ivory Coast.