Cut flower exporter, Karuturi Global Limited is challenging the termination of its farm project in Ethiopia. The company claims the government’s December cancellation of it’s 2010 lease is invalid as it didn’t follow a procedure agreed on between India and Ethiopia.
According to Karuturi the bilateral investment treaty must be accompanied by market-value compensation. In its defense, Ethiopia’s agricultural ministry says it made the decision because of lack of progress in the project. Karuturi, based in Bengaluru, India, was one of the first foreign investors to lease land in Ethiopia. This is after the government identified 3.3 million hectares as suitable for commercial farming. None of the farms have however reported any success in exporting crops and advocacy groups including New York-based Human Rights Watch say the program impoverished residents by displacing them.
