Poland

A consortium of Saudi groups - comprising dairy giant Almarai, grain importer Al Rajhi and Salic, the agriculture arm of the country's Public Investment Fund sovereign wealth fund – buys Continental Farmers Group, which has large farming operations in Poland and the Ukraine.

Les paysans polonais bloquent des villes dans le nord ouest de la Pologne pour mettre fin aux ventes de terres agricoles, destinées à des multinationales qui feraient pousser des OGM dessus.

In four cities in Poland, farmers are demonstrating against Polish farmland being sold to foreign multinationals. Now they need international support for their protests.

Law that will accelerate the sale of state farmland seen as move to give domestic farmers a head start before restrictions are removed on foreign investment as part of Poland's entry into the European Union.

Farmland investments may return 8 percent to 12 percent annually as global food demand increases, said the largest US pensions manager for teachers and academic researchers with $469 billion of assets.

Saudi Arabian investors are looking to expand their agricultural investments in the United States to secure long-term food supply because of water shortages in the desert kingdom, Saudi officials said on Thursday.

The largest fund to invest in European farmland will be launched today, signalling investors' growing appetite for alternative ways to profit from a long-term rise in agricultural commodity demand and prices. The farmland fund, set up by Germany-based Palmer Capital Partners and UK-based Bidwells, is expected to raise about €300m ($425m) to buy arable land in Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic. It will also invest in western Europe.