Farm Lands of Guinea (FLG) is a company based in Gibraltar and registered in the British Virgin Islands. On September 16, 2010, with a military junta in control of the Government of Guinea, FLG signed two deals with Guineas Ministry of Agriculture for 99-year lease rights to more than 100,000 ha of agricultural land, where it intends to grow maize and soybeans. Under a subsequent protocol, signed while the junta was still in power, FLG agreed to survey and map roughly 1.5 million ha and to 'prepare it for third-party development under 99-year leases'. FLG maintains that in return the Ministry of Agriculture gave it exclusive marketing rights over the lands 'with a commission of 15% being payable on closed sales'. In November 2011, London -based Craven House Capital, formerly AIM Investments, bought US$1,000,000-worth of FLG common shares. In July of 2012 FLG purchased the Indian company Buddhabarapu and its existing 220,000 ha of land under a Protocal d'Accord from the Government of Guinea, which leases the land from community owners for periods of 50 years. This land will be developed for rice, eucalyptus, and palm oil for export. |