Brazil has more than 16 times the fertile land than the UK. It is a country that is a world leader in the production of sugar,coffee,beef,poultry, and soya .Under the tropical sun, almost anything will grow. The land is surprisingly cheap when compared to most other countries, and this is why many governments are eager to buy land here.
Saudi Arabia, Iran,China, and Japan are just a few of the countries who are considering trying to get their hands on bargain land that will eventually provide a healthy financial reward.
I have discussed this buying of land with numerous brazilians. They are very much against foreign governments with huge amounts of money buying up Brazil.The distribution of land has been for a long time a political issue here, where comparatively few Brazilains own large areas of land(often for farming) but millions of poor have little or nothing.
Brazil is already a world leader in alternative fuels, and if foreign governments(like Saudi Arabia)are given the go ahead to buy vast amounts of land, then at some point the Arabs may possibly flex their financial clout and try to use it very much to their advantage in Brazil.With such vast amounts of cash reserves they could also buy the companies that produce the alternative fuels as their own oil reserves start to dwindle.It has be mentioned that strict laws need to be introduced quickly to prevent a "foreign invasion" of Brazilian land.It belongs mainly to Brazil today,but will it still be owned by them in the future?
Anorak Forums » Backlash
Foreign Governments Target Brazilian Land
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Posted 12 months ago #
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John
You raise an important point, and anyone with financial muscle will be tempted to flex it, whether it's the Gulf States or China. The Gulf States produce fuel, and the Chinese use fuel; they would both like chunks of Brazil.
For many years we have been told that it's perfectly ok to have foreign ownership of our assets but we are in the process of recognising that the globalisation of the financial markets has had catastrophic results.
South Africa has been largely protected from the debacle because it retained exchange controls, much to the horror of all the economists who berated them for their fuddy duddy ways; I think Brazilians would be sensible to hang onto to what they have.
We know perfectly well that investors will try to leg it to safe havens when the going gets tough, and we also know that investors have been abysmally bad at identifying risk; there's a window of opportunity before the media start pushing the 'bankers are wonderful' mantra again for countries like Brazil, and Britain, to take a long hard look at just what's in it for them.
The answer would appear to be 'bugger all' so the best of luck with not selling out your birthright for a mess of pottage...
Posted 12 months ago #
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