Business

Thanks to bird flu, chicken farming has rarely been less fashionable in the West, but investors are aflutter over the profits to be made from the business in eastern Europe. As global stock markets have plunged over recent months, Ukraine’s top agriculture company, Mironivsky Hleboproduct (MHP), which listed in London in May this year, saw its stock soar as investors sought to cash in on rising world food prices.

Investors aren’t just excited about MHP’s chickens, but also its ability to feed them by producing grain and fertilise the fields with their droppings. Ukraine has some of Europe’s most fertile farmland and decades of underinvestment means the country is set to cash in on rising supermarket prices. So if you’re wondering where to put your money, don’t dismiss chickens.

Wine merchants are pouring into Hong Kong after the government abolished import taxes on wine in February. Berry Bros and Rudd’s business has doubled in six months. Bonhams held its first wine auction in Hong Kong in April, selling €890,000 of wine, and the city held its first wine fair this August.

From China to Canada, governments are calling in the Swedes to help build new towns and cities. Luodian, a Shanghai satellite city that opened in 2006, is a replica of the Swedish medieval town of Sigtuna but functions like Hammarby Sjöstad, the environmentally friendly seaside neighbourhood of Stockholm.

Next up is Tangshan, commissioned by the Chinese government, 200km south-east of Beijing planned for one million residents. Ulf Ranhagen, from architectural and environmental consulting firm Sweco, is excited about the project.

“In China we have the chance to make everything perfect from the start because we have a clean slate to work on,” he says.

More Swede dreams:

1. Tianjin Hangu, Dongtou, China
2. Toronto Waterfront Revitalisation
3. Baltic Pearl, St Petersburg
4. Hohhot and Wuhai Green Cities, Inner Mongolia