Unpacking the finance-farmland nexus: circles of cooperation and intermediaries in Brazil

Abstract

In this article, we analyse strategies of accumulation of agribusiness corporations specializing in the land market. More specifically, we examine the processes and actors involved and the connections that global financial capital makes in order to access the land market and agricultural production in the Cerrado biome in central-northern Brazil (Matopiba region), which we refer to as ‘circles of cooperation’. We present case studies on two financialized corporations engaged in real estate farmland speculation, Radar and SLC LandCo, to illustrate the technical and political dimensions of ‘operations of capital’ and the grilagem (falsification of land titles) scheme used in the Matopiba region. Our focus is on the role of the intermediaries, namely colonels and grileiros, and the legalization of land grabbing by corporate investors.