EBRD

EBRD funds Ukrfarm, a subsidiary of the Renaissance Group, to bring an additional 50,000 hectares of land in the Ukraine into crop production.

The investment is expected to boost Cyprus-based UkrFarm’s arable land holdings in the Ukraine to 300,000 hectares by 2013 from 250,000 hectares.

Thomas Mirow, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, advises the Ukraine, on behalf of foreign investors, to drop its moratorium on the sale of farmland to foreigners.

"Politically the (Ukraine) government wants to reassure the population that these traders are not going to export grain while the population starves," says the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The EBRD is providing a working capital facility worth USD$25 million to Mriya Agro Holding, which controls 220,000 hectares of land in the Ukraine.

GAIA and others see the most leverage for investment returns coming from emerging market regions like Brazil, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan due to low valuations, low costs of production and low land values.

Presentation on farmland investment funds in East Europe and Central Asia

To speak only of the ‘threats and potential opportunities’ that these investments highlight leaves underexposed the grave risks to human rights that they pose, writes Dr. Margot Salomon, from the London School of Economics

Analysts say Moscow's plan, which would attract international commodity firms, might require a more open approach to investment in land

Russia and other ex-Soviet countries could boost world food supply by encouraging more private investment, the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Saturday.

International executives urged Russia to maximise its potential by encouraging more private investment and opening up more land to foreign investors.

"We are seeing a land grab bigger than anywhere else in the world, and it has attracted a mighty cast of characters," says Kingsmill Bond, chief strategist at Troika Dialog, a Moscow brokerage firm.