The largest agricultural holdings in Russia are increasing their assets in the Central Chernobyl Region

The total land bank of four agricultural holdings owning land in the Black Earth regions amounted to more than 3.3 million hectares, according to the 11th rating prepared by the auditing and consulting company Befl. They entered the top 5 large latifundists in RUSSIA in 2023.
The largest landowner in Russia in 2023 was the Miratorg holding - it owns over 1.1 million hectares of land in the Belgorod, Oryol, Kursk, Kaluga, Smolensk, Kaliningrad, Tula and Bryansk regions. The Prodimex company (third place on the list), which manages 900 thousand hectares, has slightly fewer land assets. The holding owns land in the Voronezh, Tambov, Kursk, Lipetsk, Belgorod, Penza regions , as well as in the Krasnodar Territory, Stavropol Territory and Bashkortostan.
Rusagro (fourth position) owns 670 thousand hectares in the Belgorod, Tambov, Oryol, Kursk, Voronezh regions and Primorsky Territory. The fifth place is occupied by the Ekoniva Group of Companies - its land area is 630 thousand hectares. Most of the assets are located in the Voronezh and Kursk regions, and in total - in 13 Russian regions.
According to Befl analysts, the top ten largest latifundists also include other holdings that own land assets in the Black Earth Region, for example, "Agroinvest" (eighth place, 450 thousand hectares), "Avangard-Agro" (ninth place, 447 thousand hectares) and " Sibagro" (10th place, 411 thousand hectares). In addition, the top ten of the ranking also included the Krasnodar Agrocomplex named after. N.I. Tkachev (second place, more than 1 million hectares), Rostov "Steppe" (sixth place), including the company "RZ Agro" with a land bank of 578 thousand hectares, as well as the Samara agricultural corporation "BIO-TON" (seventh place, 550 thousand . ha).
As analysts note, the past year has seen a process of industry restructuring, a change of asset owners, consolidation of market leaders and the departure of small and ineffective enterprises from the market. At the same time, over the past 10 years, the total land bank has increased by 72% (+2.9 million hectares), and the top five - by 93% (+2.1 million hectares). In fact, the top 10, in which Prodimex, Rusagro, Miratorg, Agrokompleks and Avangard-Agro have invariably been present since 2014, provided a third of the increase in the land bank for the specified period.
In total, 73 companies are represented in the rating, the total land bank of which amounted to 17.4 million hectares. This is 619 thousand hectares more than a year earlier. According to Befl, over the year, prices for land assets, which included a significant share of high-quality arable land, increased. This is especially noticeable in Central Russia. In 2023, price growth stabilized. At the same time, the activity of the land asset market in the first half of 2023, experts believe, indicates that agricultural land is not losing its position as an attractive investment object.
In addition to the process of obvious consolidation of land assets by medium and large market players, there is a process of purchasing agricultural land by legal entities. According to Rosreestr, as of January 1, 2023, the area of ​​land owned by legal entities reached 23.6 million hectares, which is 6.2% of the total volume of agricultural land in Russia.

“Every year, the share of agricultural land owned by legal entities increased by almost 1 million hectares. At the same time, agricultural organizations currently use more than half of the land that is privately owned (owned by legal entities and individuals) on the right of ownership, lease and other rights,” 75.9 million hectares out of 127.6 million hectares,” the study says.
This year, significant changes in the land bank have occurred among many participants in the rating, the most significant of which are the companies Agrokompleks (+286 thousand hectares), Sibagro (+108 thousand hectares), BIO-TON (+50 thousand hectares). The land bank of the Tatar companies "HK Ak Bars" (-138 thousand hectares) and "Agrosila" (-40 thousand hectares) significantly decreased, and the agricultural holding "Ravis" (-25 thousand hectares) was also among those who reduced their land assets.