Philippines

O principal grupo agrícola da China, Heilongjiang Beidahuang Nongken Group, anunciou que adquirirá ou arrendará 200 mil hectares de cultivo em países latino-americanos como o Brasil, assim como em Rússia, Filipinas, Austrália e Zimbábue, informou o jornal oficial "China Daily".

El principal grupo agrícola de China, Heilongjiang Beidahuang Nongken Group, anunció hoy que adquirirá o arrendará 200.000 hectáreas de cultivo en países latinoamericanos como Brasil, Argentina y Venezuela, así como en Rusia, Filipinas, Australia y Zimbabue, informó el diario oficial "China Daily".

Beidahuang, one of the China's leading vehicles for the purchase of foreign agricultural properties, will buy 200,000 hectares of farmland overseas this year, with Latin America and South East Asia as the target areas.

Investors from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain are currently planning to inrease investment in the agriculture sector of the Philippines as part of their government’s food security programmes.

A Korean firm is eyeing the Philippines for developing vast agricultural lands for vegetable production.

A local subsidiary of Saudi Arabian firm Abbar and Zainy has proposed turning a wide swathe of land in Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao – including the site of the Maguindanao massacre – into a banana plantation.

What are the implications when one of China's most powerful agribusiness firms starts acquiring thousands of hectares of land in the Province of Rio Negro, Argentina for the production of soyabeans, wheat, and oilseed rape to ship back to China?

The European Union is a significant player in the widespread occurrence of land-grabbing in Southeast Asia; both through its corporate sector and public policies.

While the previous administration’s attempt to aggressively promote Chinese investments met stiff opposition, Senator Pangilinan said there must be a way to develop eight million hectares of the Philippines' idle forest lands.

Part of the produce would go to local markets of producing countries, which have to provide necessary protection to Saudi investors through long-term agreements. A first such agreement was signed with the Philippines in February 2010.

Land deals, whether as direct purchases or long-term leases, are being brokered in poor countries by advanced capitalist countries and their TNCs

Investors are taking advantage of cheap land resources from poorer countries whose populations are even more food insecure.