Charles Taffs, president of the Commercial Farmers Union said the action sought to cover losses experienced by farmers and their workers.
Since the Zanu (PF) sponsored land invasions began about a decade ago, many of Zimbabwe's 4,500 white commercial farmers have been prevented from farming, contributing to the current food crisis.
Eviction orders are still being served on the few remaining farmers – estimated to number around 200. But many have refused to obey the orders, although they have been forced to seek sanctuary in the urban areas.
Some170 expelled farmers have been arrested for defying the evictions and are awaiting trial, while 30 others have been charged with defying eviction orders.
Taffs said the organisation was working on a group action to sue for the losses of farm owners and their employees.
"Without compensation being achieved, our country will continue to be a net importer, it will continue to be a dumping ground for inferior products and trade, it will continue to be donor-dependent, and, specifically for us, our sector will continue to decline," Taffs said in a paper to the GNU.
"Until legal transfer has been achieved our farmers will never be competitive within the region, as funding will always be risk-loaded, driving production costs upwards, negatively impacting on viability.
"It saddens me that, while the politicians play, Zimbabweans are being isolated in terms of business participation due mainly to our inability to source competitive funding, allowing other countries to come in and exploit those very opportunities. For example, we have become the largest African supermarket for South African products. This needs to change and it needs to change now."
Under its so-called land ‘reform’ programme, the government promised compensation for improvements made on the farms, such as houses and water reservoirs, but in most cases this has not been paid.
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