The new administration of President Michel Temer in Brazil plans to end the ban imposed in 2010 on foreign ownership of farmland, said Reuters. Brazil barred foreign ownership during a wave of concern that countries such as China would invest heavily in farmland but the rules boomeranged to an extent by making credit harder to obtain.
“Without foreign lenders being able to receive land as collateral if local borrowers defaulted, the restrictions began to limit international credit, especially in the agricultural sector,” said Reuters. The pulp and sugar industries were among leaders in support of the change. In an interview, Moreira Franco, in charge of privatization for the new administration, told Reuters the ban on land ownership “is something completely unreasonable.”