Swiss Commodities Trader Expands Into Ethanol in Africa
- New York Times
- 15 June 2011
Jean Claude Gandur’s ethanol project in Sierra Leone comes at a sensitive time, with concerns being raised of exploitation of developing countries for resources.
Jean Claude Gandur’s ethanol project in Sierra Leone comes at a sensitive time, with concerns being raised of exploitation of developing countries for resources.
A new report published this week claims farmers in Africa are being driven off their traditional lands to make way for vast new industrial farming projects backed by European hedge funds seeking profits and foreign countries looking for cheap food.
Hedge funds are behind "land grabs" in Africa to boost their profits in the food and biofuel sectors, a US think-tank says
Offshore investment firm GreenWorld (BVI) announces that it "now is able to offer individuals a unique African farmland investment opportunity in Sierra Leone".
SA’s commercial agricultural skills are a sought-after currency on the continent, with Nigeria and Sierra Leone the latest to announce bold plans to recruit South African farmers to their countries.
On March 5, 2011 in the presence of armed security forces the lease agreement was signed against payments from 173,000,000.00 Leones stacked on a table and paid to those signing the agreement.
When land deals were first proposed, they were said to offer the host countries four main benefits: more jobs, new technology, better infrastructure and extra tax revenues. None of these promises has been fulfilled.
Industry giants such as Malaysia’s Sime Darby and Singapore’s Olam and Wilmar International are scrambling for fresh space in equatorial Africa.
Political turmoil over Sierra Leone MP's nationwide broadcast inciting the people of Malen Chiefdom against the Government and the local Chiefs for having entered into a land deal with Luxembourg-based SOCFIN.
Investment involves a 40-year lease agreement for the establishment of over 16,000 acres of an oil palm project.
African farmland investment has the potential to match the exponential growth of Brazil's agricultural industry, the head of business development at privately owned agricultural operator Quifel said.