China ‘land grab’ sees it given control of 5% of Ukraine
Ukraine has agreed a deal with a Chinese company to lease 5% of its land to feed China’s burgeoning population, it was reported by the Daily Telegraph on 24SEPT13.
It would be the biggest so called “land grab” agreement, where one country leases or sells land to another, in a trend that has been compared with the 19th century “scramble for Africa”, but which is now spreading to eastern Europe.
Under the 50-year plan, China would eventually control 7.5 million acres, an area equivalent to the size of Belgium or Massachusetts, which represents 9% of Ukraine’s arable land.
Initially 250,000 acres would be leased. The farmland in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region would be cultivated principally for growing crops and raising pigs.
XPCC said it signed the £1.7-billion agreement in June with KSG Agro, Ukraine’s leading agricultural company.
XPCC however is making the first such major foray into continental Europe. It has a country that was known as the “bread basket as the Soviet Union,” but that has progressed slowly since the fall of the Iron Curtain. “The special thing about Ukraine is that there is so much land and so much food left, so there is not a danger of shortage. They already export a lot of grain that they cannot consume on their own,” said Ms Plank.
The Dnipropetrovsk transaction comes with considerable side benefits for the region. The Chinese company said it would help build a motorway in the Crimea and a bridge across the Strait of Kerch to connect the Crimea with the Taman peninsula in Russia.
