Beidahuang, one of the China's leading vehicles for the purchase of foreign agricultural properties, will buy 200,000 hectares of farmland overseas this year, with Latin America and South East Asia as the target areas.

In March 2004, an agreement was signed between southwest China's Chongqing Municipal government and the Lao government to cooperatively build a comprehensive agricultural park in Laos for Chinese enterprises to produce grain. Leasing farmland overseas to produce grain has become a new way for China, a country with the world's greatest population but comparatively scarce soil resources, to solve its food supply problem.

China's fast-growing farm corporations may be the next wave of Chinese investors in Australia, joining their already influential mining comrades.

The worldwide food shortage has spurred enthusiasm among Chinese enterprises to invest in overseas agriculture sectors. South America and Russia are likely to become the new destinations for agricultural investments from China.