farmlandgrab.org | Special content

Olam to spend $250 million on Gabon palm-oil project
- Bloomberg
- 23 January 2012
Funding will be used to develop 50,000 hectares in the central African nation and is part of $250 million in total spending
New Hope and Marubeni join for overseas expansion
- All About Feed
- 23 January 2012
China's biggest manufacturer of animal feed and Japan's biggest grain trader sign a letter of intent to expand in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South America.
Bonduelle acquires CECAB's Russian ops
- Just Food
- 23 January 2012
Bonduelle is set to acquire the Russian operations of French rival CECAB, including its 6000-hectare 'kolkhoze' farm.
BMZ stellt neues Positionspapier „Investitionen in Land und das Phänomen des Land Grabbing – Herausforderungen für die Entwicklungspolitik“ vor
- BMZ
- 23 January 2012
On 23 January the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development launched a new position paper on large scale investment in land and its implication on development policies. Objective of the position paper is to reflect the recent dynamics. Currently the paper is available in German only.
Colombia: Preparan proyecto que limita acceso extranjero a tierras
- El Tiempo
- 22 January 2012
En el Congreso se prepara un proyecto de acto legislativo que pretende endurecer los requisitos para que inversionistas extranjeros puedan acceder a tierra colombiana.
High connections: David Miliband joins Pakistani private equity firm
- Express Tribune
- 21 January 2012
Indus Basin Holdings, a private equity firm incorporated in Mauritius that invests in rice production and dairy farms in Pakistan, has managed to get Britain’s former foreign secretary David Miliband on board as a senior adviser.
A Nobel laureate’s problem at home
- New York Times
- 20 January 2012
Unbeknown to many outside Liberia, Mrs. Johnson Sirleaf’s government may now be sowing the seeds of future conflict by handing over huge tracts of land to foreign investors and dispossessing rural Liberians.
Sierra Leone : un investissement chinois de 1,3 milliards $ dans l’agriculture
- EcoFin
- 20 January 2012
Shanghai Construction Investment et sa filiale Haman Caoutchouc investiront à partir du second semestre 2012 un montant de 1,3 milliards $ dans la culture du riz et du caoutchouc en Sierra Leone sur une superficie de 30 000 hectares situé dans le nord du pays (région Tonkolili)
Sierra Leone : Agric Ministry receives $1.2bn investment for rice and rubber productions
- Awoko
- 20 January 2012
One of China’s biggest agriculture investment companies, the Hainan Co Ltd for International Economic Corporation, have announced that they have approved the sum of US$ 1,231,986,200 for the production of rubber and rice on 40,000 ha of land in Sierra Leone
Les banques européennes nourrissent la volatilité des prix alimentaires et la faim (rapport)
- La France Agricole
- 20 January 2012
Les Amis de la Terre Europe ont publié le 19 janvier un rapport dans lequel ils démontrent que la spéculation sur les prix des matières premières et le financement d'acquisitions de foncier dans les pays pauvres accroissent la faim dans le monde et la pauvreté.
Human Rights Watch flags Indian agri-company Karuturi’s Ethiopia operations
- Livemint
- 20 January 2012
“There is no villagization programme,” Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi, founder of Karuturi Global, told Mint via telephone. “This is a completely jaundiced western vision. They assume anything in Africa has to be done by the whites and the Chinese and Indians should have businesses only in their own countries.”
Fay group threatens judicial review if Chinese get nod to buy farms
- Stuff
- 20 January 2012
The inner workings of one of the NZ Government's most secret agencies, the Overseas Investment Office, could be blown open if it consents to a Chinese company buying the big Crafar dairy farming estate.