The largest landowners in the world. Governor Tkachev is the largest landowner in the world. "By the method of blackmail and threats"

1. JSC firm "Agrocomplex" them. N.I. Tkacheva

The company was founded in 1993 by the father of the ex-governor of the Krasnodar Territory and the former Minister of Agriculture of Russia Alexander Tkachev. Now it includes 60 enterprises that are engaged in crop production, feed production, meat and dairy farming, gardening, and processing of agricultural products. The products are sold by partner companies in almost all regions of the European part of Russia and Western Siberia, as well as their own chain of stores. The holding's revenue in 2018 exceeded RUB 50 billion.

2. Agroholding "Step" (including "RZ Agro")

AFK Sistema entered agriculture in 2011, having bought at auctions of the Federal Property Management Agency two companies in the Rostov region with a land bank of about 46,000 hectares. In 2012, this asset was included in RZ Agro, a joint venture with members of the Louis-Dreyfus family. Two years later, Sistema acquired the Steppe agricultural holding. In 2015, Vladimir Evtushenkov announced that he was planning to create a company with a land bank of 1 million hectares, but this goal has not yet been achieved. The agricultural holding develops plant growing, dairy farming and intensive horticulture.

3. "Miratorg"

The company was founded by the Linnik brothers in 1995. Now Miratorg is the largest meat producer in Russia. Along the way, carrying out a full cycle of production of meat products, the company is engaged in crop production and feed production. She also develops the Burger & Fries restaurant chain and Miratorg brand stores. The company is the only Certified Angus Beef producer outside of North America. In Russia, Miratorg is the owner of the largest land bank in terms of area.

4. "Prodimex" (including "Agriculture")

The company, established in 1992, was initially engaged in the import of sugar, and in 1996 it also had its own production. Now Prodimex has 16 factories producing 1.5 million tons of sugar per year. In 2017, the holding's agricultural enterprises grew 4.7 million tons of sugar beet. Grains, legumes and oilseeds are also grown. The company, together with Stefan Duerr's Econiva, is developing a project for the construction of dairy mega-farms for several thousand heads of cattle each.

5. Concern "Pokrovsky"

Concern "Pokrovsky" produces electrical equipment, is engaged in the construction of premium-class residential real estate and commercial real estate development. The concern has its own retail network of 200 stores. But agribusiness is a priority. In plant growing, the main crops are sugar beets and cereals. The enterprises of Pokrovsky produce 1.6 million tons of agricultural products per year, more than 300,000 tons are exported. The concern owns two elevators, a feed mill and a flour mill.

6. Group of companies "Dominant"

Dominant was founded in 1995 on the basis of three sugar factories in the Krasnodar Territory. The main activity of the agricultural holding is still sugar production, based on its own resource base - the sown area of \u200b\u200bsugar beet. The group also includes dairy farms, meat processing and dairy plants. Dairy products from three factories of the company in Leningradskaya, Starominskaya and Bryukhovetskaya stanitsa are sold under the Kuban Milkman brand by the Yuzhny Sugar Trust (part of Dominant).

7. Rusagro Group

The group of companies was formed in 2003. Rusagro enterprises are engaged in crop production, milk, meat and fat and oil products. In 2018, revenue grew by 5% to RUB 83 billion, EBITDA exceeded RUB 16 billion. In 2011, the parent company of the group, Cyprus-based Ros Agro plc, conducted an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. Then the company raised $ 330 million, in April 2016 during the SPO of the group - another $ 250 million. Shares of Ros Agro plc (20.8%) are traded on the Moscow and London stock exchanges.

8. Group of agricultural enterprises "Resource"

The main activity is poultry farming. Today, created in 2003, Resource is one of the largest producers of broiler meat in Russia. The enterprises of the group also grow agricultural crops, produce compound feed and sunflower oil. In 2018, the first and the only poultry plant in Russia, specializing in the production of exclusively halal poultry, began operating. Resource products are sold by 20 distributors and 600 wholesale partners.

9. "Avangard-Agro"

The company was founded in 2004 by Kirill Minovalov, the owner of Avangard Bank. It specializes in the cultivation of barley, wheat, sunflower, sugar beet, buckwheat and corn, there is also a meat and dairy business. It also produces brewing malt and sugar. The agricultural holding's revenue in 2018 amounted to 17.3 billion rubles, net profit - 4.7 billion rubles. In April 2019, it became known that Aleksey Bogachev, a minority shareholder of the Magnit retailer, became the co-owner of Avangard-Agro. His company "Meridian" acquired 11.3% of the agricultural holding for 3.3 billion rubles.

10. "South of Russia"

Established in 1992 by Sergei Kislov, the company was initially engaged in the production and export of flour. In 1999, the company launched an oil production plant with a capacity of 1000 tons per day. This became the main business of Yuga Rusi. Now the company is the largest producer of bottled vegetable oil and covers the needs for this product by 30% in Russia and 20% in Kazakhstan. In addition to sunflower oil, the group's enterprises produce flour, cereals, canned fruits and vegetables, mayonnaise and sauces.

11. "Volgo-Don Agroinvest"

Former top manager of Lukoil Sergey Kukura and his son Alexander have been working in the agricultural industry for over 15 years. Initially, the main assets of the company were concentrated in the Volgograd region. In 2015, the family-owned Lipetsk agro-industrial company acquired 35,000 hectares for 1.75 billion rubles from VTB Bank. In 2017, the Kukury increased their land bank by purchasing from the Swedish Black Earth Farming 246,000 hectares in the Kursk and Tambov regions. The main activity of the company is the cultivation, storage and sale of grain.

12. "Econiva-APK"

German Stefan Duerr began working in Russia in the 1990s: first, he advised the State Duma on legislation in the agricultural sector, in 1994 created the Econiva-APK agricultural holding, in 1996 he started importing used Western-made harvesters. In 2011, Econiva split into two structures: EconivaTechnika-Holding, which specializes in the supply of agricultural machinery, and the agrarian Econiva-APK Holding. In 2014, Duerr received a Russian passport for special services to Russia. Econiva-APK is the country's largest producer of raw milk.

13. GC "Svetly"

The history of the Svetlyi group of companies began in the Soviet Union with a state farm of the same name in the north of the Rostov region, cultivating 6,500 hectares. In 1993, a partnership was created on its basis, in 1998 it was transformed into a cooperative, and in 2010 - into an LLC. Nikolai Goncharov came to work at Svetly in 2006 as the head of a department, and a year later he became the main shareholder of the former state farm. The businessman's parents, Alexander and Tatiana, hold the positions of general and financial directors, respectively.

14. Agroholding "Kuban"

The agricultural holding was established in 2002 on the basis of three Krasnodar collective farms. The company's land bank then did not exceed 30,000 hectares. Now the agricultural holding is engaged in crop production, animal husbandry and sugar production, until recently - in seed production. But in April 2018, Deripaska's agricultural holding was the only Krasnodar enterprise that came under US sanctions, because of this, the owner of the Semyonovodstvo Kuban NGO, which was part of the association, changed. The new owner was a company associated with Deripaska's cousin Pavel Ezubov.

15. "AFG National" (including agricultural firms "Vesna" and "Nizhegorodskaya")

The agricultural holding was established in 2013 as a result of the merger of the Angstrem group of companies and the AF-Group holding. Today it is the largest producer of rice and packaged cereals in Russia. In 2018, the company achieved a record rice harvest of 222,000 tonnes in bunker weight. The agricultural holding exports about 80,000 tons of products per year. At the end of 2017, the investment group Volga Group of billionaire Gennady Timchenko became a partner of AFG, which bought 35% of shares in the capital of LLC Yuzhnye Zemli, which is part of National.

16. GC "ASB"

The history of the agricultural holding began in 1999 with the Kirsanovsky sugar plant in the Tambov region, which became part of the ASB Group of Companies created by Yuri Khokhlov. Today the holding consists of seven enterprises, including a creamery, sugar factories and the South-Eastern Agrogroup. ASB Group of Companies is 50% owned by Yuri Khokhlov and 50% by his wife Tatyana. In the summer of 2016, ASB Group of Companies signed an investment agreement with the government of the Ulyanovsk region on the creation of an agricultural cluster in the region, investments in it are planned in the amount of 24 billion rubles.

17. "Agrogard"

In 2003, when the company was created when several Krasnodar agricultural enterprises were merged, its land bank exceeded 50,000 hectares. Initially, the lands of "Agrogard" were collected for testing fertilizers, which are produced by the main asset of billionaire Andrei Guryev - the company "Fosagro", but over time the agricultural company has grown into an independent business. Now "Agrogard" operates in five regions of Russia, the main directions are crop growing and milk production (the number of cattle on its farms exceeds 12,000).

18. "Cherkizovo"

In 1998, Igor Babaev came to work at the Cherkizovsky Meat Processing Plant (ChMPZ). A year later, an enterprising engineer became general director, and in the course of privatization, the Babayev family bought a controlling stake in the plant. Now "Cherkizovo" is one of the largest producers of meat in Russia and its products. Last year the company harvested 480,000 tons of grain in its fields, 24% less than a year earlier. Last year, the company earned 102.6 billion rubles in revenue, with 7% of plant growing accounted for.

19. "Agroterra"

Out of 300,000 hectares of its land, Agroterra cultivates 200,000 hectares and, with this indicator, occupies 18th place in the list of leaders in Russian arable land. The company was established in 2008 by NHC Capital Inc., an investment company founded by US citizen with Ukrainian roots, George Rohr. Rohr began investing in assets in the territory of the former USSR in the early 1990s; in 2012, the Ukrainian Forbes wrote that his companies collected more than 800,000 hectares of land in Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania and Kazakhstan. The Russian “Agroterra” includes 30 farms.

20. "Bio-Tone"

Bio-Ton was founded in 2004 by Alexei Martynov, who handed over his package to his wife Natalya in 2011, after he was appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Samara Region. In 2013, entrepreneur Vladimir Kirillov became the owner of 75% of the company. In 2018, the agricultural holding harvested 470,000 tons of grain and leguminous crops. Total capital investments for the year amounted to 1.5 billion rubles, part of which was spent on the purchase of the Samara company Agro Service, which owns 5300 hectares of land. Since 2007, Bio-Ton has returned to circulation over 105,000 hectares of fallow lands.

Kuban Governor Alexander Tkachev has long been called a feudal lord in Russia for his vast land holdings, and abroad they know firsthand about the endless farmlands of the owner of the Kuban.

For a number of years the media have been quoting the words of a German journalist: "The columnist for the German Handelsblatt Matthias Brygman, who has been working in Russia for a long time, rightly calls the Kuban a feudal territory without civilized laws, and considers the governor of the Krasnodar Territory A. Tkachev not just the main, but the monopoly oligarch of the region." "And the American United States Energy Association believes that the governor of the Krasnodar region, Tkachev, is the largest landowner in Europe. And in the United States," says USEA head David Sweet, "there is not a single person who owns 200 thousand hectares of land." (according to 2015 data, Tkachev is one of the top five largest landowners in the world).

According to Rosreestr, the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, the cadastral value of Krasnodar land is the highest in Russia: 51,000 rubles per hectare (2012). It turns out that the land, the ownership of which is attributed to the governor's clan, is pulled at 10.2 billion rubles. According to other estimates, a hectare of Kuban arable land is worth half a million rubles: then the latifundia of the splendid family will already pull 100 billion rubles.

What kind of backbreaking work was this fortune made?

Alexander Tkachev was born in the Kuban village of Vyselki on December 23, 1960, in 1983 he graduated from the Krasnodar Polytechnic Institute, graduate school. And, having got a job at the Vyselkovsky feed mill, where his father, Nikolai Ivanovich Tkachev, was the director, became the chief mechanic with cosmic speed. Then a new takeoff: in 1986, Alexander Tkachev - first secretary of the Vyselkovsky district committee of the Komsomol. Having steered the district committee for four years, he successfully jumped off the sinking ship of the Komsomol, becoming the director of the "family" Vyselkovsky feed mill. And after the collapse of the USSR, he privatized this enterprise, creating on its basis CJSC "Agrocomplex".

Currently, the company includes 10 agricultural enterprises, 10 poultry factories, a feed mill, a mill, a confectionery shop, a cereal plant, two butter plants, two dairies, two meat processing plants, a railway shop, a service station, a biolaboratory, an oil industry, two elevators, a powerful car fleet - 900 machines ... Moreover, there are over 800 pieces of equipment in the machine and tractor fleet. The company's divisions are located in Vyselkovsky, Pavlovsky, Korenovsky, Ust-Labinsky, Slavyansky, Starominsky districts of the Krasnodar Territory, in Krasnodar itself. By 2007, "Agrocomplex" already owned 82,390 hectares of arable land, and worked for the company 8,200 workers - a real agro empire! Which continues to expand even now.

The methods of its creation are also quite imperial; a number of regional and central publications have repeatedly written about a series of “hostile takeovers” using administrative resources. And in 2004, the Pravda-info resource published an analytical note, which said: “In 1999, with the assistance of the Vyselkovsky district administration and the ROVD, A.N. Tkachev. started buying land shares of the shareholders of CJSC "Agrocomplex". As a result, all arable land (tens of thousands of hectares) became the personal property of the Tkachev family. "

All this did not prevent the newly-born landowner from declaring himself a furious communist - until 2003 (Tkachev was a member of the Communist Party)... And how else was it to make a career under the "father Kondrat", the governor of the Krasnodar Territory Nikolai Kondratenko? The successful capitalist latifundist first acquired the mandate of a deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly, then twice was a deputy of the State Duma. Until in 2000 Kondratenko made a “knight's move”, naming Tkachev as his successor, and he himself migrated to the Federation Council (then “moved” to the State Duma, then again to the Federation Council, where he sits to this day).

"By the method of blackmail and threats."

When Tkachev began to reign in Krasnodar, the administrative resource started working to its fullest. Here are excerpts from the above-mentioned analytical note on the situation in the Krasnodar Territory (it was reprinted in September 2004 by a number of other publications): “Analysis of the situation that developed after A. Tkachev was elected head of the Krasnodar Territory administration shows that A.N. Tkachev has been making efforts during all three years of his governorship to create an extensive structure to establish his (personal) control over financial and information flows in the Krasnodar Territory. Using the administrative and power resource, it carries out measures (by the method of blackmail, threats of physical harm) to replace the unwanted A.N. Tkachev of the heads of local self-government administrations, especially prospective wealthy regions of the region, as well as the seizure of the most profitable enterprises of the region through bankruptcy procedures ... Enterprises, farms, banks, which are structures of A. Tkachev and 1st deputy A.A. Remezkov are taken under personal control, are actively used by them for personal enrichment, as well as for the uncontrolled overflow of capital into the shadow economy and foreign banks. "

One of such special operations is the establishment of control over the Kristall sugar factory in the village of Vyselki in 2005. It was described in detail by the Internet portal of the Southern region YUGA.ru. In a short summary, the events developed as follows. At first, the plant got into the habit of inspectors - a sanitary and epidemiological station, environmental protection, firefighters. Tax officers and prosecutors came for them, then the district prosecutor's office opened cases of administrative violations against CJSC Kristall and its officials: non-compliance with environmental and sanitary-epidemiological requirements when handling production and consumption waste, violation of water use rules, implementation of activities not related profit-making, no license. The Vyselkovsky district court instantly ruled to suspend production at the sugar factory due to environmental pollution and, of course, non-observance of safety rules at workplaces. The owners of the plant realized who was behind the raid, and the board of directors of the Russian Sugar company even turned to President Putin for help. Having received no response, he realized that resistance was useless and expressed his readiness to sell Kristall. Then it was already a matter of technology: when the successful plant went bankrupt, it was sold. And the new owner, as a number of publications and news agencies reported in March 2006, was CJSC Agrokompleks, whose chairman of the board of directors Nikolai Tkachev, father of the governor of the region. But then “Russian sugar” for some reason hastily announced that it had sold “Kristall” not to “Agrocomplex” at all, but to a certain LLC “KRISTALL-Agro”. Why such conspiracy? In the database of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE) it appears that this LLC is registered at the address of Agrocomplex: Vyselki, Stepnaya Street, 1. However, according to the System of Integrated Disclosure of Information (SKRIN), KRISTALL-Agro was almost liquidated not immediately after that purchase. Only for the implementation of which, apparently, and was created? Some detective!

So Alexei Klimov, the former head of the Vyselkovsky district and the ex-chairman of the collective farm, in an interview with the Ogonyok magazine said: when he tried to prevent the expansion of the Tkachev empire, seven criminal cases were brought against him at once. Is it any wonder that Agrocomplex quickly became the largest agricultural holding in the Kuban? And in 2009 it absorbed the last large independent agricultural producers of the Vyselkovsky district proper - ZAO Niva and ZAO Rassvet. That allowed "Agrocomplex" to increase the area of \u200b\u200barable land by 20 percent. For the uninitiated, the takeover caused bewilderment: the enterprises were very profitable and only an idiot could voluntarily sell them. Well, if it is voluntary. And empires have no time to wait, they need to expand: “You can't stop. Forward and only forward. Whoever is late today will not catch up tomorrow, ”Nikolai Ivanovich Tkachev, chairman of the board of directors, told reporters.

Affiliate.

Formally, the state official Tkachev cannot take part in the clan's business. However, after examining the list of affiliated persons placed in the official information section of Krayinvestbank OJSC, we find: since December 30, 2004, “Alexander Nikolayevich Tkachev belongs to the same group of persons that owns the bank”. Krayinvestbank, in turn, was the founder, co-founder and owner of a considerable number of interesting assets. Among them: LLC Sailing Center of the South, LLC Vostok Chernomorsky, LLC Diapazon, LLC Foliant and LLC Universal, CJSC Invest-Plus. The bank, with which the governor Tkachev was affiliated, is listed as the main shareholder of CJSC Kuban Financial Company. Kuban Financial Company, in turn, owned 30% of the shares of CJSC Anapafilm Film Studio. Kuban Managing Company CJSC has a license to manage mutual investment funds and pension reserves of non-state pension funds. Its founders are Krayinvestbank OJSC, Kuban Financial Company CJSC and Invest-Plus CJSC. The Kuban Financial Company also has 95% of the shares of a certain Kuban Development Group LLC: according to SKRIN, the head of the latter is Roman Batalov, the governor's son-in-law. At the end of 2006, the governor left the list of affiliates of Krayinvestbank. But the family's business has not gone anywhere: there is a dad, a brother, a son-in-law, a niece ... Nikolai Tkachev, by the way, according to SKRIN, also officially runs the Kuban Pheasant Autonomous Institution of the Krasnodar Territory.

Wealthy relatives.

22-year-old Anastasia Tkacheva, a recent student, niece of the Krasnodar governor (his brother Alexei is a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation). At her young age, she turns out to be a ruble billionaire. In serious financial documents, the name of Anastasia Alekseevna Tkacheva appeared in 2007 - she was then 19 years old: a young business student was listed as the owner of 30% of the assets of a certain OOO Masterstroy. This same "Masterstroy" has already built three 16-storey buildings with 752 apartments on Fadeev Street in Krasnodar, three more 16-storey buildings for 941 apartments in the Moskovsky microdistrict, and now it is completing six more 16-storey buildings for 1344 apartments there. At 22, owning 30% of twelve 16-storey buildings with 3,037 apartments is not bad at all!

That's not all: the governor's niece is listed as a co-owner of Yuzhny Pipe Plant LLC (10% of the shares). The plant is among the suppliers of Olimpstroy: it makes polymer pipes and components for them. Another supplier of Olimpstroy, LLC Pipe Insulation Plant, is located at the same production site: Anastasia Tkacheva also has a 10% stake there. The strategic plans of the LLC include "creation of the largest regional center for pipe insulation, storage and transportation." Another girl owns 22.5% of the shares of the Yugptitseprom group of companies, which is comfortably located in the ancestral nest of the Tkachev clan - the village of Vyselki. Yugptitseprom is a large poultry processing enterprise in Russia that continues to increase production.

But the most powerful in business is Roman Batalov, the husband of the governor's eldest daughter, Tatyana. He is the son of Krasnoyarsk entrepreneurs Alexander and Larisa Batalov. As soon as the young people had a wedding, Roman Batalov became a deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly and the first deputy chairman of the Committee on Property and Land Relations. The press reported that Batalov is engaged in deputy affairs in his free time from his main work - he is also the deputy director of Krasnodargorgaz OJSC. But now his name is not on the list of the management of the company. But in the SKRIN database it was found that Roman Alexandrovich Batalov is listed as the head of six companies: Kuban Development Group LLC (capital investments in property), Turinvest LLC (providing intermediary services related to real estate), two Bramos Group LLC - in Moscow (retail trade in clothing) and Krasnodar (management of financial and industrial groups and holding companies), LLC Intercomplex (preparation for the sale, purchase and sale of its own real estate). Roman Batalov also manages the liquidated Megaset-Kuban Management Company LLC (electrical installation work).

Roman “Kuban Development Group” was widely developed: it was founded about five years ago, and already six dozen “daughters”. Regarding LLC Intercomplex, it is known that among its founders there is a certain JSC City Park - on shares with the Cypriot offshore company (36%), the State Property Fund of the Krasnodar Territory (8%) and several municipal organizations in the region. By the way, Roman Batalov also manages to work as a deputy director of OJSC Sochi-Park: this OJSC is the responsible executor of the tourist facility of the 2014 Olympics, at his disposal so far 35 hectares in the center of Imeretinka, and in total there will be 76.7. The park plans to build more than 40 attractions, shopping galleries, restaurants, a fiery alley with 42 torches, an artificial lake with dancing fountains and a light show, the Bogatyr Fortress thematic complex, a children's playground, a cinema, a market square with a trade fair, a tasting room of the Kuban wines. And after the Olympics, hotels with 595 rooms and 900 apartments, 150 shops and restaurants will appear there. Investments in Sochi-Park will amount to 16 billion rubles. No wonder they say in the Kuban: "If you want to become a big businessman, marry the governor's daughter."

The largest landowner in Russia, according to the rating for 2019, which was published in May, for the first time was Miratorg. In total, the consulting company BEFL counted 44 holdings in the country that manage lands exceeding 100 thousand hectares, and 12 more agricultural enterprises, which have 100 thousand hectares.

The first five are especially impressive, in relation to which the word "most" is repeated many times (see the infographic). Miratorg is the largest producer of beef and pork in the Russian Federation, Prodimex - sugar, EkoNiva - milk. Other prizes are held by Rusagro and Agrocomplex. And the co-owners of three holdings - Vadim Moshkovich, Alexander and Viktor Linniki, Igor Khudokormov- are included in the Forbes rating as the richest agricultural businessmen.

Who has the most pigs in Russia?

Latifundia, uniting many former collective and state farms, began to take shape in Russia 15 years ago, when agriculture began to turn into a profitable business. Huge fields and pastures lay desolate. It took money to bring them back to life. The farmers themselves had no money. But they were in the people who extract oil and ore, manage banks, import food. It is not surprising that in the end it was they who collected the largest allotments, buying up shares of former collective farmers and entire agricultural firms.

The Linniki twin brothers got rich on the supply of meat from Holland and Brazil. Igor Khudokormov and Vadim Moshkovich rose on Ukrainian sugar. Among the other largest latifundists in Russia is the Volgo-Don Agroinvest holding, created by the former first vice president of Lukoil Sergey Kukura, and the company "Step", owned by AFK "Sistema" billionaire Vladimir Evtushenkov.

If you study the family ties of the founders of other agro-giants, you will find high-level officials. The most famous example is “Agrocomplex im. NI Tkachev ”, for the first time entered the top 10 of the BEFL ranking in the years when its founder Alexander Tkachevworked as the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. The land bank of this Kuban company (that is, all land acquired for ownership or lease) from 2016 to 2018 increased by 1.4 times. The acquisitions were carried out using loans from the largest state banks.

At the same time, other agro-oligarchs are also rapidly expanding their holdings. According to BEFL estimates, the volume of agricultural land in the hands of legal entities increased by 38% from 2012 to 2018. During these years, the government was actively engaged in reducing imports and increasing food exports. Purchases of most products in European countries that had announced anti-Russian sanctions were banned, and state support for domestic producers was strengthened. And the first in line for subsidies and soft loans were large companies. By 2012-2014. they have already managed to get the best land and build their own processing plants. Who else can you help, if not the strongest and most experienced, if you need a quick result?

For Miratorg, the Bryansk Regional Duma even specifically changed the local law, which allowed one company to own no more than 35% of the land in one administrative district. The rate was raised to 50%. Now Linnikov has the largest herd of black Aberdeen bulls in the world, 629 thousand heads, and pigs are the largest in Russia.

Russified foreigners

German history Stefan Duerr- generally a plot for a movie. 30 years ago he came to a student practice in a collective farm near Moscow, where he worked as a pig inseminator. He married a Russian girl. And in the end, having sold his farm in Germany, he bought the first 5,000 hectares near Voronezh, Kursk and Orenburg through the Russian "daughter" of his foreign company. Russian legislation prohibits foreigners from owning land. But various legal schemes allow this limitation to be circumvented. And among the 56 largest agricultural holdings in the BEFL rating, at least 4 have foreign origins: Kazakhstan, France, Turkey, USA.

But the company, founded by an enterprising German, is already purely Russian today. Former Voronezh governor and current deputy Prime Minister for Agriculture Alexey Gordeev personally asked Vladimir Putin grant Stefan Duerr Russian citizenship. And after the presidential decree was issued in December 2013, the business of EkoNiva went ahead by leaps and bounds.

The cost of gigantism

The results of the bet on large domestic business are on the shelves. Russia has completely stopped importing raw beet sugar, and its dependence on overseas meat has sharply decreased. But experts also see the downside of success: the cost of production in agricultural holdings is too high. If the borders are reopened to import, our pork, beef, milk and even sugar will be uncompetitive.

“The question arises: at what price did large companies feed the country? - asks director of the Center for Agri-Food Policy, RANEPA Natalia Shagaida... - They received huge subsidies, and the prices that buyers pay for their products are higher than if the same products were imported. It turns out that the growth of diversified holdings is paid for by all consumers and taxpayers in the country. It’s not fair. It is only possible to create special conditions for companies with high production costs temporarily. And during this time they must learn to produce competitive products.

Such a high concentration of land among several dozen owners, as happened in Russia, is trying to prevent in other countries. This is believed to impede the development of small agribusiness, the foundation of sustainable agriculture. In the United States and the European Union, government subsidies are deliberately limited to large farms. And the Russian experience shows that the industries in which the share of farm production is high are the most competitive. In 2016, for example, farmers provided 29% of grain harvest and 32% of sunflower harvest versus 23% and 31.4% of holdings. And Russia is the leader in the export of these products.

At the same time, sooner or later, the companies-latifundists will stop developing, - continues Natalya Shagaida. - They will not be able to reach the level of the leaders of the world agro-industrial complex, which are engaged in the processing of agricultural raw materials, and give production to independent agricultural firms and farmers. It is too difficult to effectively manage a huge economy that includes factories and hundreds of thousands of hectares of land. "

The ten largest private landowners in the United States are businessmen, billionaires and philanthropists. They add thousands of hectares of land to their holdings every year. Some are interested in profit, others are concerned about the fate of the planet and the environment, while others are guided by personal motives.

Among the landowners there are family dynasties, whose history goes back hundreds of years, and newly made millionaires. If you combine the estates of the ten largest private landowners in America, their area will be about 5.5 million hectares, or 55 thousand square kilometers, which is larger than the size of individual US states, such as Maryland, Connecticut or Hawaii. Julia Gushchina, a Tranio specialist, found out who owns America for Dom.

10. The Pingri family

Total land area: 336 thousand hectares

In 1841, the founder of the Pingree Dynasty, merchant David Pingree, began acquiring forest plots in Maine. Seven generations later, the family owns 336,000 hectares, mostly in Maine and New Hampshire. Unlike typical landowners who sold their properties to factories to cut wood, the Pingri family worked with corporations to retain their right to vote and to enforce environmental standards.

In 1964, the Pingree heirs established the Seven Islands Land Company, which now controls the use of the family's land. The Pingri have always cared about more than just profit - even at a time when forest conservation and environmental protection were of little concern. Three-quarters of Pingri's land has the status of a specially protected natural area, which maintains the natural habitat of wild animals.

9. Stan Kronke

Total land area: 343 thousand hectares

Stan Kroenke is one of America's largest and richest real estate developers, owner of several sports teams, including the Arsenal football club in London.

Krohnke spends a large part of his fortune on land acquisition. The billionaire's total holdings in Arizona, Montana and Wyoming are 4.5 times the size of New York City. In 2012, Krohnke acquired a $ 132 million, 50,000-hectare ranch off the Rocky Mountains in Montana - roughly two Birmingham. There is a 930 square meter house with a swimming pool on the plot At the same time, the billionaire needs a ranch not so much to preserve capital and rest: first of all, elite breeds of cattle are bred here.

In 2016, Krohnke spent a tenth of his fortune buying one of America's twenty largest cattle ranches, the Wagoner Ranch in Texas. The estimated purchase price was $ 655 million. Kronke plans to build a luxury residence on the territory of the ranch, and the land will be used for growing wheat and raising livestock.

8. The King family

Total land area: 369 thousand hectares

The King dynasty has owned a vast territory in the south of Texas for more than 150 years - an enterprising businessman Richard King began buying land here in 1853 and expanded the land until his death in 1885. Today, King Ranch is the largest in Texas, with six counties in the state. About a dozen books have been written about Richard King himself, and a city located not far from the ranch - Kingsville is even named in his honor. In 1961, King Ranch was designated a National Historic Landmark.

The land owned by the King family is open to the public with guided tours for tourists and training farmers to farm in a modern way that is safe for nature. Eco-tourists come to King Ranch - here you can fish, ride bicycles, and watch birds.

The ranch is so vast and rich that it allows owners to not only raise livestock and grow vegetables, nuts and citrus orchards, but even extract oil and gas.

Total land area: 450 thousand hectares

Henry Singleton was a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, one of the founders and the head of a large electronics company, Teledyne, Inc. In the mid-1980s, Singleton became interested in investing in land and began acquiring ranches in the states of New Mexico and California. For 14 years, the businessman bought 28 ranches and became one of the largest landowners in America and the world. By 1999, Henry Singleton already owned 1.5 percent of the state of New Mexico. After his death, five of his children took over the ranch management.

One of the Singletons' sites is in the Historic Area in New Mexico, south of the city of Santa Fe. Archaeological excavations are taking place in this area, and the Singletons themselves work with historians to preserve the cultural heritage of the region.

6. The Irving family

Total land area: 485 thousand hectares

The ancestor of the family, Kenneth Colin Irving, was a major Canadian industrialist, one of the fifteen richest people in the world. Today, his sons and grandchildren own about 300 companies engaged in business in the oil and gas industries, forestry, construction and telecommunications.

In addition to 485 thousand hectares in the United States, the family owns an area of \u200b\u200bmore than 800 thousand hectares in Canada - the Irving are considered one of the largest landowners in the world. They are also the main landowners in Maine.

5. The Reed family

Total land area: 565 thousand hectares

Reeds, one of America's top 150 richest families, are involved in lumber industry. The family has run Green Diamond Resourse Company for five generations. The Reeds own land and forests in Washington, Oregon, and California. In the ranking of the largest landowners in America, the family was only recently: almost half of their territories, 243 thousand hectares, were acquired by the Reeds in 2014.

Green Diamond Resourse Company complies with all environmental standards and can serve as an example for other corporations in the forest industry. According to its charter, the company is obliged to preserve water and land resources, wild flora and fauna, cultural and historical monuments in the developed area. In 2015, Reedami planted a 100 millionth tree in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Green Diamond Resourse Company.

In 2000, the company approved a plan, according to which 51 species of wild animals and their natural habitats will be specially protected on the lands of Reeds. Each year, the company uses only two percent of the available land in the production cycle, on which new trees are planted immediately, so that the forest growth cycle is not interrupted.

4. Brad Kelly

Total land area: 670 thousand hectares

Big tobacco tycoon Brad Kelly owns many lands in the states of New Mexico, Texas, Wyoming and Colorado. According to Kelly, he did not set himself the goal of becoming one of the largest landowners in the United States. The future billionaire grew up on a farm, and the land is something that is close and familiar to him from childhood.

Kelly bought his first lot at the age of 17 right after leaving school. Later, investments in land became for a businessman one of the favorite ways to preserve and increase capital. Kelly has a good instinct for good deals - the last of the assets he acquired has doubled in price in five years. The billionaire does not manage the ranch, only invests in the purchase, and the previous owners continue to work on the land as tenants.

One of Brad Kelly's hobbies is breeding new livestock breeds and raising rare species of animals. Kelly works with zoos and wildlife conservation funds. One of his farms bred dwarf buffaloes, antelopes and wild bulls, as well as tapirs, hippos and rhinos.

3. The Emerson family

Total land area: 770 thousand hectares

The Emerson family owns land and forests in California. The Emersons' lands are expanding rapidly, every year they acquire new territories - only in 2015, plots with a total area of \u200b\u200b22 thousand hectares were added to the family's piggy bank. The head of the family, Archie Emerson, is the largest private landowner in California.

The Emersons have been working in the timber industry for several generations. They own the second largest sawnwood company in the United States, Sierra Pacific Industries. The company also cares about the environment: every year, farmers cultivate only slightly more than one percent of the Emerson land, and new trees are planted to replace the felled trees.

Billionaires who could afford to live anywhere in the world would not trade California for anything. Archie Emerson says that since childhood, he loves to be in the forest more than anything else. There is no better recreation for him than hunting or fishing in his own lands.

The Emerson Forests are privately owned but open to the public. Here it is allowed to go fishing, hiking, cycling, while it is forbidden to pick flowers, mushrooms and berries, spend the night in tents and light bonfires.

2. Ted Turner

Total land area: 809 thousand hectares

As a boy, CNN founder Ted Turner loved to hunt, fish and wander through the woods. The billionaire claims that as a child he even got into the police, having shot a squirrel in the grounds of a neighbor. Then he swore to himself that someday he would make a lot of money and buy as much of his own land. Turner kept his word. Today he is one of America's largest landowners.

Turner's favorite place where he spends a lot of time is Vermejo Park Ranch. The billionaire welcomes guests - politicians, royalty and show business stars - in a mansion built in the middle of the ranch more than a century ago. By the way, “mere mortals” can also live here: a room in Turner's mansion can be rented for 550-650 dollars per night.

Ted Turner recently decided to take on a new business - ecotourism. Vermejo Park and three other ranches of the entrepreneur have opened to the public who wants to fish, do cycling, hiking, photo safaris and so on.

The billionaire plans to turn his private property into a national park, but more intimate and cozy than, for example, Yellowstone. According to Turner, hundreds of cameras will not be aimed at the bison in his park - here you can be alone with nature.

1. John Malone

Total land area: 890 thousand hectares

The first place in the ranking of the largest landowners in the United States is occupied by John Malone. The founder of Liberty Media Corporation, one of the 100 richest people in the world, owns a ranch in Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado, as well as forests in Maine.

Malone's territory is 150 times the size of Manhattan and three times the area of \u200b\u200bRhode Island, with a population of one million. The billionaire's land in Maine accounts for more than five percent of the state's area.

Malone recently took first place in the ranking of America's largest landowners. He acquired about half of his land - 485 hectares of forest in Maine and land in New Hampshire - in 2011. Malone is an old friend of the previous hero, Ted Turner. According to the businessman, it was Turner who "infected" him with the land fever. And also, according to the millionaire, his passion for collecting land was influenced by Jewish roots and the genetic memory of the people living in him, which for centuries did not have their territory. Millarder says that in addition to financial reasons and concern for the environment, his constant acquisition of more and more new sites is inspired by a special sense of awe and admiration that he experiences when looking at the vast expanses of his land.

The largest landowner in Russia in 2018 was Prodimex, which produces sugar. He owns 790 thousand hectares of land. Next come Miratorg (meat supplier), Rusagro, Agrocomplex named after N.I. Tkacheva, Volgo-Don Agroinvest, Avangard-Agro, Steppe (+ RZ Agro), AK Bars, Bio-Ton (grain), Econiva-APK. Most of the companies are broad-based. In total, they manage 5 million 107 thousand hectares of land.

Table 1. The largest landowners in Russia

Corporation	Land area owned (thousand hectares)	Actual owners	Extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities
PRODIMEX


AGROKOMPLEX NAME. N.I. TKACHEVA
VOLGO-DON AGROINVEST		Kukura S.P. and Kukura A.S.
AVANTGARDE - AGRO		Minovalov Kirill Vadimovich
(+ RZ AGRO)
		Republic of Tatarstan

EKONIVA-APK

For reference! Statements of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities are available for the head divisions of holdings. The rating did not include: GC "Vasilina" due to the lack of information about the owners and firms included in the group, as well as the partnership "Ivolga", whose activities were liquidated in December 2018. The lands of the ROSTAGRO company were transferred to the non-core and bad assets fund "TRUST".

PRODIMEX

Parent company: "United Sugar Company", established by:

MEADWAY HOLDINGS LTD (CYPRUS);
Oleg Vyacheslavovich Khudokormov.

Place of registration - Russia, Gorno-Altaysk.

Leadership: General Director Oleg Vyacheslavovich Khudokormov.

Official website: http://prodimex.ru/.

Prodimex Group of Companies is the largest sugar producer in Russia and the leader in terms of land area owned. The owner of the business is Oleg Vyacheslavovich Khudokormov.

Brief characteristics of the agricultural holding:

16 sugar factories;
over 800 thousand hectares of land;
cultivation of sugar beet, wheat, corn, barley, sunflower, soy.

According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, since November 2018, a subsidiary of the All-Union Grain Export Association "Exportkhleb" has appeared in the assets of the group: 100% of the authorized capital of LLC "EXPORTKHLEBAGROTSENTRPLUS" belongs to Agroproduct, which, in turn, is 100% owned by USC (head organization of Prodimex) ...

MIRATORG

Place of registration - Russian Federation, Moscow region, Domodedovo.

Founders:

LLC "Agromir" (Cyprus);
SAUDADE ENTERPRISES LIMITED (Cyprus).

Management - President Linnik Viktor Vyacheslavovich.

Official website https://miratorg.ru/.

The corporation is one of the largest meat suppliers in the country. The business owners are considered the president of the company Linnik Viktor Vyacheslavovich and the chairman of the board of directors Linnik Alexander Vyacheslavovich.

Holding characteristics:

The company is the 2018 leader in the production of pork and beef in the Russian Federation.
Top 10 for the production of poultry meat.
Full production cycle from growing feed to selling to customers (including meat processing, transportation, production of semi-finished products).
The holding is considering proposals for the acquisition of agricultural land plots. The minimum area of \u200b\u200bthe site is 1 hectare.

RUSAGRO

Place of registration - RF, Tambov.

Information about the founders:

Moshkovich Vadim Nikolaevich;
Bykovskaya Natalia Sergeevna.

Leadership: General Director Basov Maxim Dmitrievich.

Official website: https://www.rusagrogroup.ru/ru/.

The beneficial owners of the agricultural holding are the family of Vadim Nikolaevich Moshkovich - the founder of the holding (N.S. Bykovskaya - Moshkovich's wife).

Areas of activity of the Group:

AGROKOMPLEX NAME. N.I. TKACHEVA

Central subdivision - Krasnodar Territory, Art. Settlements.

Information about the founders: no information (the holding was created in 1993 by combining a feed mill and a feed base).

Note! The company is currently in the process of reorganization in the form of joining other organizations.

Leadership: General Director Evgeniy Nikolaevich Khvorostina.

Official website: https://www.zao-agrokomplex.ru/.

The owners of one of the largest agro-industrial corporations in the Russian Federation are considered to be members of the family of Alexander Tkachev (Governor of Krasnodar Territory until 2015 and Minister of Agriculture from 2015 to 2018).

Activity characteristic:

the main facilities of the holding are located in the Krasnodar Territory;
full production cycle (including a chain of stores for the sale of manufactured products - dairy products, meat, cheese, sausages, etc.);
an additional direction is the sale of real estate and the lease of free premises.

VOLGO-DON AGROINVEST

Place of registration - Russian Federation, Moscow.

Information about the founders:

ERNEAL LIMITED (Cyprus) - 99.9;
Kukura Alexey Sergeevich - 0.1.

Management - General Director Aleksey Sergeevich Kukura.

Official site: http://www.agroinvest.com/ (site under construction).

In 2017, there was a major deal in the agricultural market: VOLGO-DONSELKHOZINVEST bought 100% of the capital of the Agro-Invest agro-industrial holding, which belonged to the Swedish company Black Earth Farming. According to information from open sources, the actual owners of the new merged corporation are Aleksey Sergeevich Kukura and Sergey Petrovich Kukura (more than 70% is the share of co-owners in the Cypriot ERNEAL LIMITED).

AVANTGARDE-AGRO

Place of registration - Russian Federation, Oryol region, urban settlement Zmievka.

Information about the founders:

JSC "Russian Malt";
Alkor Holding Group;
JSCB "Avangard".

Management - General Director Aleksey Nikolayevich Kirkin.

Official website: http://avangard-agro.ru/.

According to the list of affiliates of the holding, the authorized capital of the corporation is divided as follows:

Minovalov Kirill Vadimovich - 55.93%;
Alkor Holding Group - 15.11% (100% owned by Minovalov);
JSCB Avangard - 7.74% (99.3% of shares belong to Alkor Holding Group).

Accordingly, the actual owner of the business is Kirill Vadimovich Minovalov, who owns over 78% of the shares.

Company in numbers:

farmland in 6 regions of the Russian Federation;
51 agricultural enterprises;
over 4.7 thousand employees;
revenue in 2018 - 17 billion rubles.

The main activity is the cultivation of agricultural crops.

STEPPE

Head office: Russia, Rostov-on-Don.

Information about the founders: AFK Sistema.

Management: General Director Neduzhko Andrey Mikhailovich.

Official website: https://www.ahstep.ru/.

The owner of the agro-industrial holding is Vladimir Petrovich Evtushenkov, the owner of AFK Sistema. To expand the business and bring the company to the stock market, it was decided to combine capacities: Steppe owns 50% of the share of RZ AGRO, which specializes in land cultivation. The co-owner of Sistema in RZ Agro is the Louis Dreyfus Company BV.

Main directions of activity:

plant growing;
vegetable growing;
sale of agricultural products;
dairy farming.

AK BARS

Place of registration: Russia, Kazan.

Information about the founders:

TD "AK BARS";
MINISTRY OF LAND AND PROPERTY RELATIONS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TATARSTAN;
SVYAZINVESTNEFTEKHIM;
OJSC "AK BARS".

Management: General Director Egorov Ivan Mikhailovich.

Official website: http://www.abh.ru/.

State diversified holding, whose activities are aimed at the development of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Agriculture is separated into a separate block of 14 enterprises in the Republic of Tatarstan and the Republic of Chuvashia.

Main directions:

plant growing;
meat production;
production of dairy products.

BIO-TON

Place of registration - Samara region., With. Maryevka.

Legal entity participants:

Kirillov Vladimir Ilyich - 75%;
the share owned by the company is 25%.

Leadership: General Director Irina Valerievna Logacheva.

Official website: http://www.bioton-agro.ru/.

At present, the sole owner of the company is Vladimir Ilyich Kirillov.

Note! Until 06.11.2019, the share of 25% owned by the company must be distributed.

The main activity of the company is the production, processing and storage of grain and leguminous crops.

The company is a strategic enterprise in the Samara region in the agro-industrial sector.

EKONIVA - APK

Place of registration - Voronezh region., With. Shchuchye.

Information about the founders:

EKOZEM-AGRAR AG (Germany);
Dürr Stefan Matthias.

Note! The shares are pledged by Alfa-Bank JSC.

Leadership: CEO Dürr Stefan Matthias.

Official website: https://www.ekoniva-apk.ru/.

The holding is one of the largest milk producers in Russia. The actual owner of the business is its founder - German entrepreneur Stefan Duerr.

Activities:

milk production (main);
animal husbandry;
cattle breeding;
plant growing;
seed production.

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