While Brazil touts its efforts to slow destruction of the Amazon, another biodiverse region of the country is being cleared for large-scale farming. But unlike the heralded rainforest it borders, the loss of the cerrado and its rich tropical savanna so far has failed to attract much notice.
"Tem muita gente que comprou fazendas aqui pelo preço de uma carteira de cigarro (o hectare)", comenta Ribamar Mateus, da empresa imobiliária JRM.
US agribusiness group Bunge Ltd is actively scouting out for palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia to cater to rising demand from Asian economies
Brazilian farm companies are in a race of investments with every major company making new acquisitions and major capital investments.
Foreign investors are not just snapping up Brazilian farmland – they are taking a bigger stake in sugar operators too, tripling their participation within three years.
Bunge says investor interest in farmland ownership appeared to be growing, and Bunge was aiming to draw more than $100 million in investor dollars to its land fund.
In Brazil, El Tejar and others are investing in ownership and hope to capture land appreciation. BrasilAgro brags that it sold one farm for a gain of 116 percent in just 17 months.
Cargill and Bunge among firms setting up funds to buy farms in Asia and South America.
Bunge Limited, a premier global agribusiness and food company in the US, has recently announced plans to acquire 25,000 acres in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from the local firm Acucar Guarani to grow cane for its sugar and ethanol mills.
