Australia

One of Canada's largest pension funds, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, has made its first rural land purchase in Australia through central Queensland's Hewitt Cattle Company.

Giant US investment fund TIAA-CREF expects Australia's ageing farmers and a lack of sons and daughters willing to inherit their farms will lead to large numbers of properties hitting the market over the coming decade.

Australia's National Farmers’ Federation has criticised the Abbott government’s reduced threshold for foreign farm purchases.

The announcement of the sale - which is expected to attract significant foreign interest - comes a month after the government said it would clamp down on foreign ownership of agricultural land.

Mitchell's Yougawalla Pastoral Company the latest Australian cattle station business to be put up for sale. Foreign corporations have spent some A$63.5 million buying into the sector in the past month.

Sale and leaseback agreements were almost unheard of in agriculture five years ago, but a few major deals recently have put them on the map, according to property group Colliers International.

Australia's agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, has defended the government’s newly tightened foreign investment regime before key agricultural industry stakeholders.

Foreign investors own 10% of Australia's agricultural land. But that could soon rise thanks to two huge projects being developed in Northern Territory's Top End with the help of foreign investors.

A partir du 1er mars, acquérir des terres en Australie se complique pour les étrangers: le gouvernement renforce son contrôle des investissements dans le foncier agricole pour répondre aux inquiétudes suscitées par les achats chinois.

California-based Finistere Ventures is in Australia speaking to potential backers after its first close of a new $US150 million venture capital fund. The Finistere II Agtech (agricultural technology) Fund has secured the backing of German giant Bayer CropScience, as well as Canadian investment firm AVAC.

The tighter restrictions don't apply to buyers from the US, New Zealand or Chile because of their existing free trade agreements with Australia.

The foreign ownership debate in Australia needs to evolve to – or be merged with – a broader debate about the future of the agricultural sector.