BPL Pensioen, a Dutch pension fund for agricultural and horticultural workers, has made a fresh investment of €90m in ASR Real Estate’s Dutch Farmland Fund, which owns 39,000 hectares in the Netherlands worth some €2.1bn.

The Israel-based company has begun avocado farming in Kenya on a 400-hectare farm where it has planted 55,000 trees of avocado with the ultimate target of 300,000.

Sous les palmiers à 6000 kilomètres de Fribourg, la colère ne faiblit pas dans une plantation d’Okomu, une filiale de Socfin, dont le commerce de matières premières passe par Fribourg.

Le groupe émirati Al Dahra, spécialisé dans l’agriculture à grande échelle, est en discussions avec le gouvernement kényan pour louer près de 81 000 hectares de terres agricoles situées dans une zone d’irrigation.

"Whether it is a farmer or an investor, they are now viewing land as an asset class to get rich off of speculation, not the productive capability of that land."

O mercado de terras no Brasil se consolidou como um dos mais atrativos e dinâmicos do mundo, principalmente pelos ativos florestais. Suzano e BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group fizeram a maior transação ao comprar 70 mil ha para eucalipto no Mato Grosso do Sul, seguida pela empresa Klabin para florestas plantadas, SLC Agrícola, Brasil Agro e os Fiagros.

The negotiations come amid a backdrop of growing scrutiny regarding land leasing practices in Africa. Critics argue that large-scale land acquisitions by foreign firms can lead to land dispossession and adverse environmental impacts. It remains to be seen how Al Dahra addresses these issues.

Agricultural workers and a legal advocacy group have raised concerns over a “fast-tracked” bill seeking to extend land lease terms for foreign investors to nearly a century, warning of its potential negative impact on farmers, plantation workers and indigenous cultural communities.

The Framework for Responsible and Inclusive Land Intensive Agriculture is a World Bank Project executed across Nigeria to ensure land acquisition and resettlement for large-scale agribusiness investments are undertaken in line with established international standards.

SRC and LAC operations on customary land have historically been conducted without the consent of local communities, leading to land grabs, destruction of livelihoods, and various human rights violations.

HAGL, a major Vietnamese agriculture firm, has doubled its durian farming area to 2,000 hectares and expanded its banana farming area by 40% to 7,000 hectares in the past two years.

Al Dahra will probably invest about $800 million to farm 200,000 acres [81,000 ha] of land at an irrigation development located in the coastal region, according to Kenya’s principal secretary for irrigation, Ephantus Kimotho.