Korea

The recent much-publicised plan of South Korean conglomerate Daewoo Logistics to lease a reported 1.9 million hectares of prime land in Madagascar to cultivate maize for export back to South Korea has fallen through.

A South Korean company said Thursday it may delay a controversial project to develop a huge area of Madagascar for farmland due to political unrest in the Indian Ocean nation."We may have to delay our investment in Madagascar mainly due to political instability there," Shin Dong-Hyun, managing director of the financing and strategic planning department of Daewoo Logistics, told AFP.

Daewoo Logistics Corp. expressed wariness yesterday over growing political unrest in Madagascar and hoped that the situation would not affect a massive farm project it is pushing in the Indian Ocean nation. “It may be a bit of a dangerous investment,” Shin Dong-hyun, a Daewoo Logistics official, told Yonhap News Agency, commenting on spreading anti-government protests in Madagascar.

Le groupe sud-coréen Daewoo Logistics pourrait renoncer à son projet de plantation de maïs et de palmiers à huile à Madagascar. L'information a été annoncée au cours d’une conférence de presse donnée mardi par la compagnie à son siège à Séoul, capitale de la Corée du Sud.

South Korea's Daewoo Logistics said on Tuesday it might delay its massive corn plantation plan in Madagascar due to political instability and weak commodity prices, a move that could signal the first withdrawal of major foreign investment from the Indian Ocean island nation.

When violence erupted in the island nation of Madagascar two weeks ago, few would have guessed that South Korean conglomerate Daewoo Logistics was partly to blame.

With vast tracts of land being sold in Madagascar, and Sudan and other African governments actively seeking investors in agricultural land, are we witnessing a neo-colonial land grab or will the investment result in greater food productivity to the long-term benefit of recipient nations?

Rarement un dossier foncier aura autant enflammé les passions.

PT Daewoo Logistic Indonesia and Cheil Jedang Samsung will jointly build an integrated corn industry on the islands of Buru and Sumba with an investment of US$50 million.

Après les manifs qui se sont déroulés devant l’Ambassade de Madagascar à Paris, vient le tour de l’opposition locale de manifester contre cette affaire.

« Je réaffirme que ce projet est toujours au stade de prospection, » soutient le ministre de la Réforme foncière et de l’aménagement du territoire, Marius Ratolojanahary.

The South Koreans have indicated that they want to ship their output back home for their own domestic market, which is overdependent on imports. Officials in Antananarivo insist they will be able to keep some of the new supplies within the country. “We’re very excited because we’re frightened by this food crisis,” said Eric Beantanana, a spokesman at the Madagascar Economic Development Board.