Background Farmland
These are the 5 largest landowners
Land is a sought-after asset and very important to farmers. There are also many actors outside the agricultural sector for whom land is important, but the list of largest land owners still includes quite a few farmers.
However, the list below with the largest landowners is not in proportion to the Dutch acreage. It is, however, little consolation for farmers in the Netherlands that the price of land is nowhere as high as in the Netherlands.
1. Roman Catholic Church: 70 million hectares
The largest landowner in the world is not a big oil tycoon or a real estate investor. No, it's the Roman Catholic Church. The church has lovemoney.com owns more than 70 million hectares. An area larger than France. It is not only about agricultural land, but also land in the most expensive locations in London, Paris and New York.
In the Netherlands, too, the churches still own a relatively large amount of land. The above-mentioned church, but also the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) and the Mennonite Society together own about 30.000 hectares of land, calculated the network 'Green Churches'.
2. Gina Rinehart: 12 million hectares
If we have to point out 1 person who owns the most land worldwide, we end up with Gina Rinehart. She is the richest woman in Australia, having been the richest woman in the world in 2012. As a mining magnate, she has a huge amount of land in Australia and the United States (US). The land in her possession is used, among other things, for the rearing of cattle from the Wagyu breed† Its agricultural land portfolio has been expanding in recent years strong out.
3. Chinese dairy farmer: 9 million hectares
The largest agricultural landowner is the Chinese dairy farm 'Mudanjiang City Mega Farm', which is in the hands of Russian and Chinese owners. More than 9 million hectares would belong to the company. It concerns a piece of land that is larger than Portugal and on the farm 100.000 cows are kept and approximately 800 million liters of milk are produced annually.
4. Australian Agricultural Company: 7 million hectares
The Australian Agricultural Company, the oldest agricultural company of Australia, owns no less than 7 million hectares of land. This mainly concerns cattle farming. The largest shareholder in this company is British Joe Lewis, the number 12 in the list of the richest people in the United Kingdom.
5. Jumbuck Pastoral Company: 5,75 million hectares
The last in this top 5 largest landowners is another large Australian farmer. Jumbuck Pastoral Company is owned by the MacLachlan family. The company is the largest wool producer in Australia.
In the US, too, landowners have an enormous amount of land; think of media mogul John Malone, who owns almost 1 million hectares. The largest arable farm would be the Brazilian 'El Tejar', where almost 1,1 million hectares of soya and maize are grown. These are numbers that are far removed from the Dutch farmer. The areas of the largest arable farms of the Netherlands do not exceed 2.000 hectares.
Anne-Jan Doorn
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