Expansão Agrícola, Preços e Apropriação de Terra Por Estrangeiros no Brasil

Abstract

The recent "rush for farmland" in the world has made of Latin America and Brazil targets in the process of land deals with a great increase of foreign investments on the agribusiness including land purchases by financial companies, among others. Despite the low liquidity, land deals and foreign investments in agribusiness are not new in Brazil, but have increased considerably after 2002, as it is possible to be seenin the registration system of the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform. According to some field researches, most of the recent investments are related to production of grains (especially soybean) and sugarcane (to produce sugar and ethanol), but also for mining,resulting, among other consequences, in a great increase of land prices in some Brazilian regions.Such rush for land has led the Brazilian government to reestablish a legal mechanism to "control" these foreign investments in land deals. This article discussesthe recent process of foreign investments in purchasing land in Brazil, focusing inmain causes for such investments and its consequences, including possible influences on land prices and social and political impacts over disputes to access land in Brazil.