China

In March 2004, an agreement was signed between southwest China's Chongqing Municipal government and the Lao government to cooperatively build a comprehensive agricultural park in Laos for Chinese enterprises to produce grain. Leasing farmland overseas to produce grain has become a new way for China, a country with the world's greatest population but comparatively scarce soil resources, to solve its food supply problem.

Dans un souci de reprendre le contrôle sur son approvisionnement alimentaire, les autorités étudient actuellement la mise en place d’une politique incitative visant à encourager les entreprises agricoles chinoises à acheter et louer des terres cultivables en grande quantité, plus particulièrement en Afrique et en Amérique du sud.

China's fast-growing farm corporations may be the next wave of Chinese investors in Australia, joining their already influential mining comrades.

“It is the government’s policy to encourage all companies to go abroad, including agricultural firms,” a Chinese Agriculture Ministry official told Reuters.

This week, Saudi Arabia announced plans to invest in overseas fisheries, livestock and food production, and is reportedly trying to partner with Thai rice farms to lock in future supplies. Libya is in talks with Ukraine about growing wheat there, and as China tries to feed its expanding middle class, it’s looking to buy up farmland in Africa and South America.

Chongqing Seed Corp has decided to cultivate rice on 300 hectares in Tanzania from 2009

Rattled by rapidly rising global grain prices, China is looking at strategies to ensure long-term food security for its 1.3 billion people such as procuring farmland overseas and opposing the formation of any international grain price-fixing monopolies.

China's private firms are pushing to invest in farms overseas, but policy debates over whether this is in China's strategic interest have so far stopped the trend becoming an explicit government policy, a senior official said on Friday.

As Beijing scrambles to feed its galloping economy, it has already scoured the world for mining and logging concessions. Now it is turning to crops to feed its people and industries. Chinese enterprises are snapping up vast tracts of land abroad and forging contract farming deals.

Les Chinois achètent en masse les terres exploitables au Cameroun pour produire du riz en masse, et ainsi profiter de la flambée des prix sur le marché mondial

The worldwide food shortage has spurred enthusiasm among Chinese enterprises to invest in overseas agriculture sectors. South America and Russia are likely to become the new destinations for agricultural investments from China.

With their huge populations, China and India exert an unparalleled force on world food markets. They are looking abroad as it becomes more difficult for them to be self-sufficient -- and the increasing demand often has disastrous consequences across the globe.