Incredible £263m farm that’s the biggest in Europe – but owned by Middle East

Farming is a big business – and there’s one farm in Europe that is biggest of all.

The Agricost Farm in Romania is the biggest in the EU, covering an incredible 57,000 hectares of land.

As a demonstration of scale, this means there are six countries in Europe smaller than the farm – Andorra, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Liechtenstein and the Vatican City.

This also means that the territory of the EU’s smallest member – Malta – sits comfortably within the EU’s largest farm, with enough room left over to also fit non-members San Marino and Monaco inside. 

This sprawling territory is 37.3 miles long and 6.8 miles wide and sub-divided into 29 smaller farms. 

This sprawling territory is based around Great Braila Island in Romania, which is separated from the mainland by two branches of the River Danube.

Agricost does not known the land itself, it has leased it until 2032, and to prevent flooding it has constructed 31 miles of channels to help pump excess water away.

Around 200 tractors and 100 combined harvesters are used to cover this vast estate – with almost five million litres of diesel used in just one year.

Corn is the most profitable crop on the farm, with the facility making a profit of £611 per hectare – with some of this coming from the £11.4million subsidies the farm receives from the EU,

The farm was purchased from a Romanian businessman by UAE-based Al Dahra investment in 2018 – for a sum close to £263million.

While the farm is the biggest in the EU, it was far from the biggest in the world – with China and Australia both possessing huge farms.