Kazakh National Economy Minister Yerbolat Dossayev resigned on May 5 after almost two weeks of protests against amendments to the Land Code that critics say would enable foreigners to buy more land.

One of the country’s largest flower farms Karuturi limited has officially been closed, with receiver managers and liquidators moving in to wind up the farm.

The processes of the Overseas Investment Office are proving to be a barrier to some companies looking to buy New Zealand land.

Kremlin says 51% of the $9.8bn management company will be held by the Russian Federation and 49% by Chinese partners and specifies that land can only be provided to Russian companies for agricultural production.

Indigenous and civil society leaders from Indonesia, Peru, Colombia and Liberia gathered in London Wednesday to urge a boycott of firms that commit human rights violations and land seizures to cultivate palm oil.

Institutional investors want access to farmland in Latin America, but they want it through a Delaware entity that can leap all of the local financial logistics.

"Our main priority in the Far East is to provide the conditions for investment in agricultural and infrastructure spheres," says Russian Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev, naming several regions near China's northeast.

The Government office which decides whether or not to allow foreigners to buy sensitive New Zealand land will receive a 25 per cent boost in staff and new enforcement powers.

Farm Foundation, NFP, along with USDA’s Economic Research Service and Bank of America Merrill Lynch host a workshop on the implications of non-farmer investor interest in agricultural resources.

A unit of China’s Shanghai Pengxin Group Co. bought a controlling stake in Brazil’s soybean trader and biodiesel maker Fiagril Ltda for $286 million, marking the first major Chinese acquisition of an agricultural company in Brazil.

The private farming company, Sewa Farm, will start rice farming between June and July this year in Turma Bum in Bonthe district on an initial 25,000 hectares.

The suitors led by Shanghai Pengxin Group will instead work on a new structure for the takeover of S. Kidman & Co., while sticking with the same price tag for the 117-year-old cattle company.