Concentration and foreign ownership of land in Brazil in the context of global land grabbing

This article analyses land concentration in Brazil and the changing patterns of land acquisitions predominantly through foreign investments. First we compare census data from 1996 and 2006 and identify an acceleration of land concentration. We then show the limitations of the official registry data for capturing the phenomenon of foreignisation, and complement this with an analysis of data from the Central Bank, which provide for some general conclusions. Our research into journalistic and business literature confirms and complements these findings. We discuss the historical context of land concentration in Brazil, highlighting its progressive institutionalisation through juridical and regulatory control of foreign access to land. The transformations underway are driven by changes in the market dynamics of key agricultural and forestry commodities, for the analysis of which we develop a typology of capital.334SI41743