Growing foreign appetite for land

It is a question of "national sovereignty, not xenophobia," said the president of Brazil’s land reform agency, INCRA, explaining the need to regulate foreign land ownership in Brazil.

The biofuel frenzy has driven growing purchases of land in Brazil property in the last few years, by local and foreign investors alike. Global financier George Soros, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, the owners of Google and former U.S. president Bill Clinton (1993-2001) have all bought land or are partners in companies Brazil property dedicated to the development of biofuel in this country.

As a result, land prices have grown. The price per hectare rose by an average of 18 per cent in 2007, and much more than that in areas where cultivation of grains and sugar cane is widening, according to the Instituto FNP, an agribusiness consulting firm in Sao Paulo property.

Some measure of control must be reflected over rural property in the hands of foreign owners, in order for the country to be fully aware of the extent of Brazil Property of the phenomenon and to have power over how land is used, the head of INCRA, Rolf Hackbart, told.

"It’s not a question of interdictioning foreign investment," he clarified.

A Brazilian property law regulates sales of land to foreigners since 1971, restricting purchases to residents or companies operating in the country and setting size limits on the areas that can be acquired.