Breitbart
September 3, 2018
French farmers lit flares and sowed grass seeds on land bought up by firms from China, complaining locals are being squeezed out of the countryside by foreign investors.
Around a hundred farmers converged on land near Châtillon-sur-Indre in the Loire valley, where China’s Hongyang consortium has bought more than 2,000 acres of farmland.
It bought 4,200 acres in the region in 2016, and all told, the Chinese have purchased an estimated €76 billion (£68bn/$88bn) in French land since 2010, including a large number of Bordeaux vineyards — up from 30 châteaux in 2012 to over 160 today, according to The Times.
“The land is there to provide for farmers’ families and to produce food,” complained Laurent Pinatel, a spokesman for the Small Farmers’ Confederation.
“The [Chinese] owners have come here to make a profit, to speculate on agriculture while monopolising the land,” Mr Pinatel.
This article was posted: Monday, September 3, 2018 at 6:43 am
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