Australia

Corporate Chinese interest in Australian rural land assets is gaining momentum and there are several players on the hunt across a wide spectrum of ­sectors: sugarcane, cotton, wool, tomatoes and grapes for wine.

Overseas buyers may boost investment in agriculture assets in Australia, the fourth-biggest shipper of wheat, as they seek to secure supply to meet surging food demand, said Queensland Sugar Ltd. Chairman Alan Winney.

Australia's Federal Opposition will establish a working group to investigate options for sharpening rules governing the sale of Australian agricultural land and agribusinesses, to foreign entities.

"Ultimately, we want to see more, not less, investment in Australian agriculture for the benefit of our industry, but we need to be very clear about the motives," says Jock Laurie, head of Australia's National Farmers Federation

"You get a clash of sovereignties. You might take an individual to court or a corporation to court. But I think you'll be very concerned if you take a country to court especially when that country is far bigger than the one you live in," Australian Senator Joyce said.

Asian investors have overtaken Europeans as the biggest buyers of Australian land, a snapshot of foreign acquisitions reveals.

Australia's left-leaning Greens party on Friday called for foreign investment laws to be beefed up to cover farming land and water licenses, fearing too much was falling into overseas hands.

Minister of Agriculture says Chinese government controlled company's acquisition of some of the Australia's richest food growing areas is too great a risk for the nation.

Politicians throughout the Parliament united this week to raise concerns about the level of foreign investment throughout Australia.

As controversy continues to bubble in Australia over the latest big local farmland buy-up and what it means for food production, it’s worth looking to see where these foreign raiders are coming from, who’s backing them and how other countries are tightening their regulations to stop them.

The buy-up of prime agricultural land by Shenhua has sparked a furious political debate in Australia

There is nothing new about foreign investment in Australian agribusiness. But a number of things are happening now which have not occurred before, writes Mike Pope.