Cargill's Acquisition Agendas in Indonesia and the Philippines
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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) The politics of land deals Cargill’s acquisition agendas in Indonesia and the Philippines Salerno, T.N. Publication date 2018 Document Version Final published version License Other Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Salerno, T. N. (2018). The politics of land deals: Cargill’s acquisition agendas in Indonesia and the Philippines. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:09 Oct 2021 The politics of land deals: Cargill’s acquisition agendas in Indonesia and the Philippines Tania Salerno The Politics of Land Deals Cargill’s Acquisition Agendas in Indonesia and the Philippines The Politics of Land Deals Cargill’s Acquisition Agendas in Indonesia and the Philippines ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. ir. K.I.J. Maex ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op dinsdag 15 mei 2018 te 14:00 uur door Tania Nicole Salerno geboren te Etobicoke, Canada Promotiecommissie: Promotor: Prof.dr. H.W. van Schendel Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof.dr. S.M. Borras Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam Copromotor: Prof.dr. B.N.F. White Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam Dr. R.A. Rutten Universiteit van Amsterdam Overige leden: Prof.dr. G.A. van Klinken Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof.dr. J. Clapp University of Waterloo Prof.dr. J.M. Baud Universiteit van Amsterdam Dr. O. Visser Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam Dr. J. Adam Universiteit Gent Dr. L.J. Steur Universiteit van Amsterdam Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen Contents List of tables ....................................................................................................................... v List of figures .................................................................................................................... vi List of acronyms ............................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ x Chapter 1 Multinational agro-industrial commodity traders in the rush for land ....................... 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Problem Statement: Agricultural trading giants and a global acquisition agenda ............ 4 Research questions .......................................................................................................... 12 Key question ............................................................................................................... 12 Sub-questions .............................................................................................................. 12 The cases ......................................................................................................................... 14 Contribution of the study ................................................................................................. 16 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 18 A qualitative approach to conducting research in elite spaces ................................... 18 An approach to studying transnational corporate actors and its limitations ............... 20 Field locations and data collection ............................................................................. 21 Thesis outline .................................................................................................................. 25 Chapter 2 Analysing the strategies of agro-industrial commodity traders across diverse state- capital-society contexts .................................................................................................... 26 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 26 Contextualising ‘the why’ of land deals .......................................................................... 26 The state-society interaction approach ............................................................................ 29 Actors .......................................................................................................................... 30 Power resources: Relations, networks, and alliances ................................................. 38 Country-specific state-capital dynamics ......................................................................... 39 Reviewing the transformation of state-capital relations in Indonesia and the Philippines over time .................................................................................................. 42 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 57 i Chapter 3 Cargill’s ‘big acquisition agenda’ .................................................................................. 59 Cargill and the rush for land ............................................................................................ 59 A tour through the “Agriculture Investment Summit” in Singapore .............................. 60 From a grain trader to a global agricultural giant ............................................................ 63 The first food regime (1870-1930): The British-centred agricultural system and Cargill’s foundation .................................................................................................... 63 The second food regime (1950-1970): The U.S.-centred agricultural system and Cargill’s growth .......................................................................................................... 64 The corporate-centred food system and Cargill’s financialisation ............................. 65 Summary of Cargill’s transformations ....................................................................... 69 Cargill’s informal and formal power resources ............................................................... 74 Informal power resources: Social and political capital .............................................. 75 Formal power resources: Influence in state regulation and policy ............................. 77 Cargill’s ‘big acquisition agenda’: Oil palm, finance, and land ..................................... 81 Oil palm ...................................................................................................................... 81 Finance ........................................................................................................................ 86 Land ............................................................................................................................ 94 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 100 Chapter 4 Cargill in Indonesia: CTP Holding’s oil palm operations in West Kalimantan ...... 102 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 102 Part 1| The context ......................................................................................................... 103 State-capital-society relations in the Indonesian oil palm sector .................................. 103 The institutional setting ............................................................................................ 103 The political economy of West Kalimantan’s oil palm sector: Oil palm conglomerates, land control, and dispossession ....................................................... 110 The space for foreign land investment ...................................................................... 116 Part 2|The case ............................................................................................................... 119 A tour through Cargill-CTP’s PT Harapan plantations in West Kalimantan................ 119 A brief history of Cargill’s expansion in Indonesia ...................................................... 125 ii State-capital-society relations under three different investors in Manis Mata, West Kalimantan .................................................................................................................... 129 Cargill-CTP’s land holdings in Manis Mata ................................................................. 140 The acquisition of land control through informal power resources .............................