Rada expectedly extends land sale ban to 2013

Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada voted to prolong the moratorium on the sale of agriculture land until 2013. Parliament previously approved the law on the land market in first reading, which included a similar statement but was not binding. Yegor Samusenko: Prolongation of the moratorium was expected due to its unpopularity ahead of the upcoming elections in October 2012 and the weak normative framework for launching an agricultural land market. We keep our view that lifting the moratorium will have a minor effect on listed agricultural companies: we expect most of them to continue leasing land. We believe Russia’s experience with its eight-year-old land market is indicative: only 2% of land is now owned by farming companies.