US

The Financial Times reported this week that TIAA-CREF is developing a new “investment vehicle” that will bet the retirement funds of millions of American on the rising price of farmland around the world.

"Investing in Farmland and Feeding the World," was discussed at an interactive session at the 65th CFA Institute Annual Conference in Chicago last week.

Sweden's SEK216bn (€24bn) buffer fund AP2 and TIAA-CREF have increased commitments to an agricultural property company launched last year to $2bn (€1.6bn), attracting interest from several Canadian investors.

The overall objective of this report is to identify potential interventions to enhance the capacity of newly created private equity funds in agriculture and/or agribusiness in Africa, especially the stimulation of technical assistance to agricultural value chains.

On the evening of April 24, following a daylong rally against large-scale land investment deals in poor nations, the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan became the venue for a 30-minute light show against land grabs in Africa.

Investment managers meeting at the Waldorf Astoria in New York said rising US farmland prices were making it harder to find quality land and high returns, and a lot of capital flow is moving to developing nations.

Preparation to counter the gathering of 1,000 African Land Buyers who paid an entrance fee of 3,000 dollar at Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, New York for their conference from April 23 to April 25 is underway.

When University of Texas professor John Doggett spoke at the Governor's Ag Conference in Nebraska, he stirred up echoes of an issue that has been largely dormant in America for the past few years, but one that he said will soon return.

En acquérant ces terres, la firme américaine accapare aussi l’essentiel des ressources du sol et du sous-sol. « Le contrat de la Sgsoc lui accorde le droit d’utiliser, gratuitement, des quantités illimités d’eau dans sa concession foncière. »

Dans le Sud-ouest du Cameroun, le groupe agro-industriel américain Herakles Farms détient désormais plus de 74’000 hectares, avec un bail de 99 ans

Le Centre pour l’environnement et le développement dénonce la concession de 73 000 hectares accordée par l’État camerounais à une société américaine qui vise une production annuelle de 400 000 tonnes d’huile de palme. 25 000 riverains seraient affectés par ce projet.

Foreign companies from Korea, Qatar, US, UK and China are "secretly" buying up large chunks of NSW farmland by establishing shelf companies, trust funds, and extended settlements to avoid scrutiny.