Maxcrop...

[Klause]

http://maxcrop.ca


Chinese investing in Canadian farmland??? Time to bring this to the Government's attention as far as foreign ownership (illegal in Canada)?...

[malleefarmer]

cninese are active here in australia buying all the best land at inflated prices,good if you want to sell....
govt have a foriegn investment review board in place now to keep everything in check but its a toothless tiger does nothing

[ajl]

The track record for off farm investment
in western Canadian farmland is that they
get there A$$ handed to them eventually.
I expect the same thing will happen again.
No other place in the world is so far from
the markets it serves, and has more
government milking it and has crazy
weather if the above was not enough.

[wilagro]

Don't trust this !@#$% AB government at all when it comes to furinners. They'll sell us out if it suits there "political philosophy"...bunch of idiots. Remember Ernie Isley when he was Ag Minister...all those Taiwan interests where the government lent them money and promoted and smoothed the way for more hog farm investment even when local authorities didn't want it. Pretty soon after that debacle every hog farmer in AB was going broke.

[westsider]

Good point Klause! I first heard about this around Christmas time. I was told an investment fund (from now on referred to as "group")here in Saskatchewan was trying to figure out a way to get foreign money invested in Sask farmland through a type of derivative. This group was talking to investment managers and finance experts as well as dropping 10's of thousands of dollars in a big Toronto law firm to try to figure out how to get around the rules / regulations and make this a possibility.

This group based out of Regina does not really care about anything besides finding out (and succeeding) how to get around the law and getting rich at the expense of every Saskatchewan farmer. The method they have set up pays the group a certain % commission right off the top. So.... a) they want the land to be as expensive as possible when these foreign multi-nationals start funneling their money in here b) if land prices implode they don't really care, they made their money already.
I sent a letter to Brad Wall awhile ago concerning this and how this company was planning on making this crime happen. I got a reply from one of his "people" and the basic message was, "its illegal for foreigners to own Sask farm land therefore it will not happen". Made me feel pretty confident in our system. <heavy sarcasm>
I am just as much a capitalist as the next guy on here but also believe a little protectionist action needs to be taken here by our government.
I would encourage each and everyone of you guys on here to tell your friends and family what we are looking at and make sure each contacts their local government member.

West-side Out

[BTOfarmallll]

Awwwe I'll Squash em' like a Bug. Lets worry about The Hutts First!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[riders2010]

Hate to bring cwb into this but, many around here believe the cwb issue is a smoke screen designed to deflect attention away from this and other much more important issues facing agriculture in western canada. Just look at he posting on here, this is a major issue multiple times more important than the cwb, yet every second post is about the cwb.
Wonder if the the political hacks from the sask party and other political cronies in the farm investment scam are using that foreign money to take over farms knowing the programs are an intentional flop? those guys were no millionaires in fact far from it, until they got to power and almost overnight buying land like there was no end to money?

The most important resources in the world are right here, land, fertilizer, oil, lumber etc. and we give it away or allow foreigners to take it over for a pittance of money. And there is absulutely no discussion about the direction our country is taking on all these issues.

Just a question not sure anyone would know but do the bank accounts of government officials get scrutinized while in power or after?

[jd3007]

Westsider, I phoned the Saskatchewan Farmland Security board about them and they told me they were investigating, but that is all they would say They have recently been purchasing land in east central saskatchewan at prices that are double of what they were before. No locals are even thinking of purchasing in this range. I plan on also sending a letter to my MLA. Hopefully if enough people complain the point will get across.

[Klause]

EC SK?

That would be Leroy area?


Let me get this straight...

1. Buy land at 1200/ac... when its market value is 700.

2. Rent out at 45/ac if you can find someone - which they are having trouble with there.

3. Expect the land to appreciate past 1200/ac.

I don't quite understand.... this makes no sense...

It's not like Chinese investors can send their peasants over here, farm the land, then take the commodities back.... so what's the
point in this exercise?


What's going to happen.... farmland will go up till it hits a bubble bursting point, something will trigger a collapse, these investors
will want to get out in a hurry, and sell to whoever gives them something for it, and they will loose most of the value in their initial
investment.

I'm sorry... but history is doomed to repeat itself.

[westsider]

Klause - "It's not like Chinese investors can send their peasants over here, farm the land, then take the commodities back.... so what's the
point in this exercise?"

This is not an exercise in futility! These are very smart, resourceful and ambitious individuals, corporations and countries doing this. It's not a plan to that is set up to fail.

Go to your nearest university that offers ag programs and take a look at who all the post graduate and masters students are. I am not making racist comments here but these Universities are actually pulling some of the brightest young "white Canadians" aside and begging them to continue on. This land play is not currently set up to send all the grain back to Asia right now, maybe later it will. They want to take over and are working the Canadian ag industry like a chess board, always thinking 2 moves ahead.

Like someone mentioned above this is a "limited resource" getting smaller by the day. Like farmers when things go bad these guys will sell out everything else just to keep their names on the land titles.

The only people that can stop this is government, and that's if they even want to!