Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 10/08/2022
The portal of the Slovenian weekly Kmečki Glas published on 3 August a piece headlined Americans Bought a Third of Land Under Cultivation in Ukraine, which was retracted the same day. The article claimed that since last year, when a new law on the sale of farmland took effect in Ukraine, three multinationals owned by American capital had bought nearly a third of land under cultivation in Ukraine.
The article quoted as its source the Australian portal Australian National Review, which reported on 27 May that US multinationals Cargill and DuPont, and the German-Australian firm Monsanto, which is majority owned by American capital, had purchased 17 million hectares of Ukrainian farmland, which is supposed to represent 28% of land under cultivation in Ukraine prior to Russian military attacks. Data by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization for 2020 show that Ukraine had a total of 41.3 million hectares of arable land. A third of that would be 13.7 million hectares.
Media Bias/Fact Check, a portal that measures media bias, has designated the Australian National Review as a right-leaning outlet that frequently spreads pseudo-science and conspiracy theories. Its founder Jamie McIntyre has spread disinformation and conspiracy theories on social media and on his portal in the past, according to AAP FactCheck.
A day after the article was picked up by Kmečki Glas, on 4 August, it was also run by the portal Maribor24.si.
In March 2020 the Ukrainian government passed a law amending several laws concerning the sale of farmland; it has been in force since 1 July 2021. The sale of farmland to foreign firms has been allowed since 2002, but the latest amendments introduced the possibility of voters deciding at a referendum on whether the land can be sold to a foreign natural person.
Even prior to these amendments, Ukrainian law stipulated that farmland may not be transferred to the ownership of foreign nationals, stateless persons, foreign firms, or foreign countries. The same applies to firms whose partners or beneficial owners are from foreign countries, firms whose beneficial owners cannot be identified, or enterprises registered in tax havens. Foreign-registered firms may only lease farmland.
Land Matrix is an independent database on large-scale purchases or leases of land in low- and medium-income countries which have partnered with five global and four regional organizations. To date, the database does not list Cargill, DuPont, or Monsanto among firms that have bought or leased land in Ukraine since the passage of the law.
We asked all three firms about farmland purchases in Ukraine. Only Bayer, which has owned Monsanto since June 2018, has replied. They explained that they own “no land under cultivation” in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food has not yet answered our questions regarding the ownership of farmland.
We have brought the findings of Razkrinkavanje.si to the attention of Kmečki Glas and the Australian National Review. We have also asked Kmečki Glas to explain its retraction but have not received a reply.
After receiving questions from Razkrinkavanje.si, the Australian National Review attached an editor’s note to the article stating that the claim about 17 million hectares was an error and that the figure is actually 1.7 million hectares. They added that the foreign firms do not hold the land directly in their names but via investment funds. They did not explain which ones.
The claim that the Americans bought a third of the land under cultivation in Ukraine in the last year is false.
