Brazil Congress Attempts to Liberalize Purchase of Land by Foreigners

By Richard Mann, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Negotiation of agricultural land for foreign investors has returned to the Brasília agenda. Senator Irajá Abreu (PSD-TO) filed last week a new bill on the topic, more flexible to the sale or leasing of rural properties, provided that these groups form a company in Brazil.

“I see a more favorable political and economic environment for the issue. The approval of foreign airlines entering Brazil helped debunk the subject,” the senator told Brazilian news outlet Estadão.

The purchase of land by foreign investors in Brazil has been a sensitive issue for the government in recent years.

Since August 2010, an opinion of the Federal Attorney General’s Office (AGU) on Law 5.709, of 1971, restricted international groups from obtaining control over agricultural properties in the country.

In 2012, a bill was presented in Congress modifying the restriction, but it is at a standstill. Since 2016, Federal Representative Newton Cardoso Jr. (MDB-MG) has been attempting to unblock the project.

According to Cardoso, there is no risk to national sovereignty. The bill defended by Senator Irajá Abreu is in line with what Cardoso Jr. has supported in Congress.

The new proposal no longer limits the purchase of land. The Amazon biome region and border areas, however, will have more significant restrictions.

The National Defense Commission will be responsible for the final endorsement of the deal.

In the event this bill is approved, foreign investors will still be restricted concerning large rural areas – whether for acquisition or possession, said Aldo De Cresci Neto, a lawyer specializing in forestry investments, to Estadão newspaper.

The lawyer, who is also executive secretary of the Parliamentary Front for Forestry, was one of the names listed to be Minister of Agriculture under Michel Temer’s government.

Discussions between Congress and the Ministry of Agriculture to approve this bill have gained strength in recent days.

Deputy Newton Cardoso Jr. said that the portfolio, led by Minister Tereza Cristina, has been more open to the issue.

The bill, which has been in the House of Representatives as a matter of urgency since 2016, met with resistance from former Minister Blairo Maggi.

If passed, the bill is expected to attract investments to the country of approximately R$50 billion per year.

These contributions would come not only through acquisitions or leases but also through potential investments generated by productive land use, according to Senator Irajá de Abreu.