Australia

Elders has begun a sale of all its forestry plantations totalling 50,000ha across the country. Much of the land purchased is expected to be planted with sugar cane, bananas or returned to beef grazing, and COFCO and Wilmar International have indicated their interest.

More than 613,000 hectares of Australia's NSW's agricultural land is owned by UK-based investors, compared with 227,300 ha owned by Korean interests and 55,560 ha by US investors.

Hassad Food Company is keen to secure food supplies for Qatar at reasonable prices through local and international investments in various countries, according to an article in the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry memorial book ‘40 Years of Excellence and Achievement.’

Roger Ferguson, chief executive of TIAA-CREF, says his firm is increasingly acquiring farmland in the US, Eastern Europe, Australia and Brazil as long term investments.

Farmland investments may return 8 percent to 12 percent annually as global food demand increases, said the largest US pensions manager for teachers and academic researchers with $469 billion of assets.

It's become known as the global land grab. More and more wealthy countries are buying up agricultural land in the developing world in at attempt to hedge against high food prices.

Shadow minister for agriculture and food security, John Cobb, said it was concerning that in the past three years there had been a 10-fold increase in foreign investment in ownership and control of agricultural supply lines.

The National Farmers Federation says the figures that show Australian farm land to be about 90 per cent locally owned is a small part of the picture. It's just one of three studies, with the others looking into the value of farm production.

New figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show more than 12 per cent of land used for agriculture in South Australia is owned by foreign interests.

Aquila Capital Green Assets has helped European investors acquire $111 million of New Zealand farmland.

According to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as at 31 December 2010, 89% of the nation's agricultural land was Australian owned.

While foreign investment is nothing new in the Australian sugar industry, the rate at which foreign companies have been pouring money into the industry has caused some concern among canegrowers.