China to invest in 3 mln hectares of Ukrainian farmland - media

China To Lease Ukraine Farmland

 

23 9월, 20:43www.rferl.org

China has reportedly agreed with Ukraine to lease 3 million hectares of Ukrainian farmland for the next 50 years, making Ukraine China's largest overseas farming center.

 

 Chinese media reports said on September 22 that China's Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) had signed an agreement with Ukrainian government-controlled agricultural firm KSG Agro to lease initially 100,000 hectares in Ukraine's eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

 

 That would eventually rise to 3 million hectares, in a deal said to be worth $2.6 billion per year. The media reports said the farmland would mainly be used for growing crops and raising pigs.

 

 XPCC is a quasi-military organization established in the 1950s in China's northwestern Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Province, which borders Russia and three other former Soviet republics -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan -- to reclaim farmland and consolidate defenses against the Soviet Union.

 

 In a report last month Ukraine's "Kyiv Post" newspaper called the deal an "unprecedented foreign investment" in Ukraine's agriculture sector.

 

 This would make it China's biggest reported lease or purchase of farmland overseas.

 

 In a separate development, earlier this month XPCC signed a memorandum with Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea on infrastructure investments in the peninsula, including an expressway, a government housing project, and a bridge across the Strait of Kerch.

 

 Investing In Food

 

 Ukrainian media reports earlier this month said that Kyiv and Beijing plan to sign by the end of 2013 an agreement allowing Ukrainian farmers to start exporting barley and soybeans to China.

 

 Mutual agreements on exports of Ukrainian wheat and canola to China are expected to be signed next year, Ukrainian media said.

 

 Ukraine has also been expressing an interest in cooperating with China on developing Crimean fisheries.

 

 The Ukrainian and Chinese media reports have yet to be confirmed officially so far.

 

 China accounts for one-fifth of the global population but only 9 percent of its farmland. Demand for food is growing as Chinese incomes rise.

 

 Beijing has made substantial agricultural investments elsewhere, notably in South America. Chinese companies leased 234,000 hectares to grow soybeans and corn and cotton in Argentina, paying $1.2 billion. Chinese companies have also agreed to pay $375 million for soybean plantations in Brazil.

 

 China's overseas expansion in agriculture has raised some concern. In June, Australian politicians called for greater scrutiny over farm purchases by foreign buyers. Chinese investors bought up Australia's biggest cotton farm in 2012.

 

 With reporting by "South China Morning Post," Reuters, UNIAN, and "Kyiv Post"

 

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22 9월, 15:04www.reuters.com

SHANGHAI, Sept 22 (Reuters) - China is to buy 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of Ukrainian farmland, media said on Sunday, which would make Ukraine China's largest overseas farming centre as it strives to keep pace with rising food demand.

 

 China's official Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps has signed an agreement with Ukrainian agricultural firm KSG Agro, which would see Ukraine provide 100,000 hectares to China. That would eventually rise to 3 million hectares, the South China Morning Post said.

 

 Chinese experts have said China must expand its overseas farming to ensure sufficient food supplies because of its limited land and low productivity.

 

 China accounts for a fifth of the global population but only nine percent of its land. Demand for food is rising as incomes rise.

 

 The 50-year plan was mainly aimed at growing crops and raising pigs, the Hong Kong newspaper said, citing a statement from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC).

 

 In 2009, China had a total of just over 2 million hectares of farming land abroad, the newspaper said, quoting an agriculture expert.

 

 A spokesman at the government-linked XPCC said he was not aware of the statement and did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for confirmation of the report.

 

 China's overseas expansion in agriculture has raised some concern. In June, Australian politicians called for greater scrutiny over farm purchases by foreign buyers. Chinese investors bought up Australia's biggest cotton farm in 2012.

 

 China, which has aims to be 95 percent self-sufficient in food, also suffers from fears over food safety after a series of scandals ranging from melamine-tainted milk to toxic heavy metals in rice and vegetables.

 

 (Reporting by Adam Jourdan)

 

 

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