Foreign investment in land opens a new chapter in the colonization of Africa, said today (Tuesday) in London one of the leaders of the think-tank Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA).

In 2009 Sime Darby Plantation acquired a 63-year concession covering 220,000ha in Liberia that it will developed into oil palm and rubber plantations

Company also in talks with the government of Cameroon on a project estimated to be worth $2.1 billion.

The project funded by Col. Muammar Kadhafi with some US$30m to engage in mechanized production of rice has collapsed, and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is now seeking a new investor to take over the project.

Southeast Asian palm oil firms like Malaysia's Sime Darby and Singapore's Golden Agri Resources are backpacking to Africa, in what could be the planet’s next trend-setter in inter-continental resource trade.

Industry giants such as Malaysia’s Sime Darby and Singapore’s Olam and Wilmar International are scrambling for fresh space in equatorial Africa.

It appears that the Bomi County operations of Sime Darby are being hindered as locals there are reportedly holding back lands leased by the government of Liberia to the company.

The move comes after two fact-finding missions led by the foreign secretary last year found farming in the so-called dark continent "exceedingly lucrative" for Bangladeshi investors.

Indonesia's move to bring in a two-year moratorium on new palm oil plantations has seen agribusiness giants like Sime Darby switch expansion plans to Cameroon, Ghana and Liberia.

Asian palm oil producers are being accused of cashing in on Africa in their search to expand production

Le géant agro-industriel ivoirien Sifca a réalisé à quelques semaines d'intervalle deux opérations majeures dans le caoutchouc (22 000 ha) et l’huile de palme (8 800 ha).

The world's biggest listed palm oil firm, is on the lookout for more land, in a move sure to fuel the global grab for arable land as food prices remain high.