Agrarian structure, foreign land ownership, and land price in Brazil (Dinâmica fundiária e apropriação de terra por estrangeiros no Brasil)

By Sérgio Sauer and Sergio Pereira Leite

The recent world “rush for farmland” has made Latin America, in general, and Brazil in particular target in this process with a great increase of foreign investments on purchasing land, including the financial enterprises in the last decade. Even having a very illiquid market, land deals and foreign investments in agribusiness are not new in Brazil, but has increased considerably after 2002. According to some field researches most of the recent investments are related to the production of grains (especially soybeans) and sugarcane (to produce sugar and ethanol), resulting among other consequences in a great increase of land prices in some regions of Brazil. Such rush for land has led the Brazilian government to reestablish a legal mechanism to “control” these foreign investments in land deals.

However, since the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA in Portuguese) has registered a great number of land titling in name of Brazilian companies, it seems there is an ongoing cheating process in these land deals. Thus, based on data of INCRA?s registration files, this article is going to discuss the recent process of foreign investments in purchasing land in Brazil, looking especially for the main causes for such investments and its main consequences, including the land price and social impacts. The research will analyze the increase of land prices in some regions, relating with the recent investments in agricultural production in such regions.

It is important to acknowledge that the land price impacts directly on several public policies like the agrarian policies since it is a determinant aspect in the governmental budget. It also deepens the land conflicts and is becoming a new cause for blocking the governmental policies and action in the process of recognition of indigenous and African slavery descendants? territorial rights. Following, the article will reflect about the limitations and problems of the legal path taken by the Brazilian government and some popular proposals like the recent mobilization to establish a ceiling (limite máximo) for land property in Brazil.