Stop Land grabbing in Romania / Bauernland in Bauernhand
Why Romania?
Natural resources
Legislation
Corruption Cheap labour
EU
Land prices/ownership
Land grabbingIn RomaniaSmithfield
Unigra
Rabobank
Agrarius AG
Maria Trading Germanagrar
Ingleby Company
Pharos Financial Group
Prio FoodsGabriel Resources
Lactitalia
Emiliana West ROM
Agrimon
First Farms
Bardeau Holding
ASI Europe GMBH
Agrar Invest Romania AG
& MANY OTHERS& MANY OTHERS
Estimation: 800 000 hectares
6 % of the agricultural area
cultivated by large multinationals
But no official statistics
+ land grabbing done by Romanian agribusiness
How much land has been grabbed ?
How do they do it?
• Information diffusion – Positive marketing– No clear information about the contract’s
details– No information about the agricultural
activities
• Contracts : renting – 100 €/ha/year or 800 kg/ha/year– 10 years– If you want to break the contract : you must
pay 600-700 €/ha/year
Getting the peasant to lease land
Impacts
- Land dispossession- Land prices increase (+ 300 % in 10 year)- Unemployment :
- No active population- No socio-economic development
- Destruction of a scientifically recognized farming model- Monoculture and pollution- No environment protection- Land monopoly – neo-colonialism!
- Heritage destruction (archeological sites, forest)- Water resources privatisation and control
Key concerns - encourages industrial agriculture systems and
large land mergers
- destroys peasant agriculture
- weakens local economy and regional food systems
- leads to land speculation and price increase
- increases pollution and reduces biodiversity