Chinese billionaire sees baguette goldmine in French fields

Thiel-sur-Acolin, France

IN THE peaceful French village of Thiel-sur-Acolin, retired farmer Marc Bernardet is ambivalent about having a Chinese billionaire for a neighbour. Over the past four years, Hu Keqin has quietly snapped up 3,000 ha of wheat fields in the central Indre and Allier regions, including next door to Mr Bernardet.

His purchases are part of a Chinese buying spree in recent years stretching from the US to Australia. And in France, struggling farmers fear a landgrab. "It's a piece of French heritage that is being taken but that's globalisation, and that's the trend at the moment," Mr Bernardet told AFP. "If it wasn't the Chinese, it would be someone else."

The fields may be bare for winter, but Mr Hu has big dreams: eventually they will provide some of the flour for 1,500 French bakeries in China, catering to a b…