Some of China’s largest agricultural companies are targeting land in Russia’s Far East for potential multimillion-dollar investment deals, local officials claim.
A number of firms want to develop land that has "remained untouched since the end of the Soviet era" in the country's most remote regions, Sergei Novichenko, minister of Economic Development in Russia’s Trans-Baikal region, told guests at an investment conference in Beijing.
Potential investors include China's largest agricultural firm, the state-owned China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation COFCO, the FlashSiberia news outlet reported.
China’s Zoje Resource Investment was one of the first countries to sign a 49-year lease for 115,000 hectares (284,000 acres) of land in the Trans-Baikal region back in 2015.
The company plans to invest some 24 billion rubles ($427 million) in a bid to farm poultry and livestock, as well as grain and other crops for animal fodder.
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