Romania

Farmland prices are firming across much of Central and Eastern Europe, as interest from institutional investors -- mainly pension funds -- begins to translate into transactions on the ground.

The potential for investment in Eastern European agricultural land is gaining more and more attention. Information is being dug up by individual commercial investment organizations to make investment moves.

UK farm management company Velcourt Group said it’s planning to invest in farmland in Romania in a joint venture with Mintridge International.

Britain's biggest farm management company is branching out into agricultural investment in Romania, believing eastern Europe offers far more fertile opportunities than those at home.

Governments in a number of countries are trying to address concerns about land grabbing by closing their borders to foreign investors. Are these restrictions effective? Not really, says GRAIN.

A travers la Roumanie, les richesses naturelles sont les proies de convoitises et d’investissements massifs. Comment se présente l’accaparement des terres en Roumanie ?

As much as 10% of Romanian farmland could be in the hands of multinational businesses, but there are no official statistics to establish the full extent of the corporate takeover.

Romanian authorities have a history of giving up fertile agricultural land to foreign companies or Romanian “fat-cats”, all to the detriment of small scale, diverse, economically sustainable and environmentally sound agriculture.

Le gouvernement de centre gauche prévoit soit d'imposer un plafond pour la superficie qu'un étranger sera autorisé à acheter, soit d'exiger que l'acheteur ait une expérience dans ce domaine, a indiqué M. Constantin

Since Jane Mendillo took over the endowment in July 2008, Harvard’s holdings of forests, farms and other natural resources in Brazil as well as in New Zealand and Romania have grown to about 10 percent of the portfolio -- more than $3 billion -- and she wants to add more.

For years, Romania has been a playground for foreign investors. Drawn by the vast amounts of available land, along with prices lower than in the rest of Europe, more than 700 000 hectares of land are now owned by foreign investors.

The extension of the interdiction to sell agricultural land to foreigners after 2014 is a request that cannot be granted, says the Minister of European Affairs, Leonard Orban.