Companies listed on European exchanges have been acquiring large amounts of farmland in Russia:
- Trigon Agri (market capitalization of $287.8 million - Denmark). The company was set up in 2006 by Trigon Capital investment group and controls 100,000 ha of farm land in the Penza and Samara regions;
- Agrowill Group AB (market capitalization of $76.7 million - Lithuania). Purchasing land in the Penza Region and plans to secure up to 50,000 ha in the Black Earth area before the end of the year;
- Black Earth Farming, controlled by natural gas producer Vostok Nafta and which manages more than 300,000 ha of farm land in the Central Black Earth area; and
- RAV Agro-Pro (IPO’ing) which controls 82,000 ha.
The Russian Land Code forbids foreign nationals and companies, as well as Russian companies more than 50% owned by foreigners, to own farm land.
