Kazakhstan

Iran has launched agricultural cultivation in Kazakhstan, marking its first farmland investment overseas as the Middle Eastern country seeks to secure food supplies amid a lingering drought.

Iranian institute confirms that Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for overseas farm production programme

Iranian institute starts offshore food production in Kazakhstan and will soon expand to Ukraine and Ghana. It will also look into sourcing water supplies abroad.

During a visit by the Prime Minister of Hungary, KazAgro and the Export-Import Bank of Hungary agreed to establish a 50:50, $40 million Development Fund to invest in Kazakhstan agriculture.

Interest in farming from a new class of institutional investors — including hedge, endowment, pension, private equity and sovereign wealth funds — has surged.

Amid outcries from local residents against the foreign acquisition of agricultural lands in several Georgian regions, some experts have drafted recommendations to amend the Law of Georgia on the Ownership of Agricultural Land.

HighQuest Partners in the US say that between 65-80 million hectares of additional land is going to have to be brought into production, globally, within the next 10 years and that this means more foreign farmland investment.

Arab states should buy land in Kurdistan and Kazakhstan to produce staple foods to secure future food resources says a senior Arab League official.

Against a backdrop of rising world wheat prices, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has chosen Kazakhstan as the destination for its first ever equity investment in farming.

The EBRD makes a US$45 million equity investment in KazExportAstyk, which controls 1m hectares of agricultural land in Kazakhstan – an area about the size of Denmark.

Russia’s VTB Capital plans $1bn agriculture fund which will begin by buying assets in Russia and Kazakhstan – from land to processing companies.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Agriculture calls Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine “probable countries of investment” in farmland and confirms Kingdom's continued interest in farmland in south Sudan.