According to the agricultural property watchdog SAFER, “a Chinese group” has acquired 1,700ha of prime tillage land in central France, exploiting a legal loophole to evade scrutiny.

The buyer encouraged French farmers to form limited companies and later bought a majority stake in the companies. Until recently, “there was no requirement to notify SAFER when acquiring stakes in companies,” a spokesperson for the agency told the Irish Farmers Journal. Recent legislation “has introduced it, but only if 100% of the company is sold”, they added.

This allows the transaction to go unnoticed, whereas straight land sales must be notified to SAFER, which has a right of first refusal and monitors land prices.

Petrol station equipment trader

Le Figaro newspaper named the Chinese buyer as Hongyang, a company previously known for trading petrol station equipment. Le Figaro also reported that the land sold for €15,000/ha instead of a market price of €4,000/ha.

SAFER declined to confirm the identity of the buyer or the amount, but confirmed that the price paid was above market price. “This destabilises the land market and makes it inaccessible,” the agency’s spokesperson said.

Food sovereignty is in danger

SAFER added in a statement: “No farmer is due to start up on this land as the plan is to use salaried staff; no involvement in the community is possible at this scale, nor is any local trade envisaged as the production is destined to be exported.”

“This jeopardises the whole French agricultural model based on family farms,” the agency commented, adding that “food sovereignty is in danger”.