Cargill may have broken law over Colombia land buying -Oxfam [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Cargill may have broken law over Colombia land buying -Oxfam

By Peter Murphy

BOGOTA, Sept 27 | Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:59pm EDT

(Reuters) - U.S. commodities trader Cargill bought a large area of farming land in Colombia many times bigger than the legal limit by setting up dozens of "shell companies", violating the spirit of agrarian reform laws, charity Oxfam said in a report Friday.

In the research report "Divide and Purchase," Oxfam says Cargill set up the companies to buy land up to the legal limit for any individual or company, to farm all of the adjoining land as a single plantation and get around restrictions designed to promote distribution of land to smallholder farmers.

Oxfam says that Cargill's purchase of at least 52,576 hectares (130,000 acres) in the eastern Altillanura plains through companies registered from 2010 and 2012, all listing the same agricultural activity and address, may have broken the law.

"The company violated the spirit of the law by accumulating an area at least 30 times greater than the permitted limit," Oxfam said in its report which also listed other lesser known local and foreign companies it said also circumvented land laws.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/27/cargill-colombia-idUSL2N0HM1A220130927?rpc=401