Australia

Billionaire trucker Lindsay Fox is making a late bid to keep Australia’s largest outback cattle ­empire in local hands with a push to buy the sprawling S. Kidman & Co stations that are set to fall into Chinese hands.

A Chinese company with strong links to the family of Li Ka-shing, one of Asia’s richest men, is on the verge of securing farms covering almost 70,000ha after the biggest single offering of freehold land in Western Australia’s history.

Chinese investors are buying up macadamia orchards in Queensland and New South Wales to protect their own supply

Northern NSW premium meat exporter Bindaree Beef set up a 10,000 square metre cutting-edge facility in QingDao, North Eastern China, aimed at value-adding Australian beef, is due to be finished by the end of 2016.

Chinese businessman Lu Xianfeng said he wants to increase production, to meet a booming Chinese demand.

Dongfang Modern said in a statement that it was buying 5,270 hectares of land via two deals in the province of Jiangxi for $76 million. The company will own more than 8,000 hectares after the deals are completed.

Foreign investment rules controlling overseas ownership of farmland and agribusinesses are not as tough in Australia as in many countries', but the Business Council of Australia says they still confuse and discourage potential investment.

"There is no limit to the scale we can achieve" says Farmland Partners CEO, as his company plans to branch out from US into Australia and New Zealand.

Cargill’s global asset management business, Black River, has recently extended its Australian agricultural land asset portfolio, buying two Queensland cattle grazing properties near Mackay for conversion into higher-return sugarcane production.

An agricultural investment advisor predicts international companies wanting to buy Australian farmland could be scared off by changes to the threshold for scrutiny by the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Deal with Greens guarantees passage of legislation to lower screening thresholds for foreign investments in farmland and agricultural businesses in Australia

European pension fund-backed ACE Farming has quietly snapped up a dairy farm near Yarram, in South Gippsland, primed for development opportunity for about $8 million.