Australia

Qatar land grab angers bush
- The Age
- 19 June 2011
Local stock and station agents in Western District Australia estimate the Qatar government paid a premium of up to 20 per cent in order to secure the controversial deal,
Hassad Foods set to expand its Australian farmland holdings
- Property Observer
- 16 June 2011
The Middle Eastern company Hassad Foods, through Australian representatives, has been pinpointed as set to spend $45 million on five large western Victorian propertie
Foreign ownership of Aussie land: the peril of selling the farm
- Crikey
- 16 June 2011
Government-backed companies, as Hassad Food, have begun buying up farmland around the world, with Australia’s vast tracts of top quality primary production land a prime target.
Investments that will grow
- The Australian
- 15 June 2011
The global financial crisis may have hit tax-effective agribusiness schemes hard, but the prospects of the small group of companies that survived are anything but gloomy. "We're actually tapping into the new GFC, which is the global food crisis," says Wayne Overall, executive director of agribusiness managed investment scheme operator Almond Investors Limited
Swedes want Aussie farms
- Stock & Land
- 14 June 2011
The Swedish National Pension Fund is teaming up with US institutional investor TIAA-CREF to buy farmland in Australia.
China moves to secure food and fuel future
- Radio Australia
- 07 June 2011
"The world is running out of farm land quite rapidly and farm land is going to be a very, very precious commodity in time to come. ... Australians are pretty dozy and comfortable on this issue," says Julian Cribb.
Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund eyes farm deals with Glencore
- Interactive Investor
- 07 June 2011
The focus of Aabar on farming investments comes as Gulf nations, including Abu Dhabi, plan billions of dollars of investments in global food supply and infrastructure as they guard against price shocks and supply shortages in core resources.
Queensland's sugar takes a foreign flavour in big industry shake-up
- The Australian
- 06 June 2011
Subsidiary of Singapore's Wilmar pays $115m for Australia's largest sugar mill operator and plans to buy back former cane land now used for timber plantations to expand sugar production.
How the land lies
- Knight Frank
- 02 June 2011
Investors are thinking big when it comes to farmland purchases, reports Andrew Shirley in Knight Frank's Wealth Report 2011
What price NZ? Land bid tests limits
- NZ Herald
- 27 May 2011
Last week, bids closed for an 83% stake in Fonterra's biggest supplier, Dairy Holdings, which oversees 72 South Island farms. Bidders reportedly include Chinese dairy giant Bright Dairy, a pastoral fund owned by Australian investment bank Macquarie Group, British private equity firm Terra Firma. US private equity firm Carlyle Group and the Harvard Endowment Fund.
AP2, TIAA-CREF partner in agriculture venture
- Global Pensions
- 25 May 2011
Swedish pension buffer fund AP2 and US pension fund manager TIAA-CREF have formed a joint venture to invest at least US$500 million in farmland in the US, Australia and Brazil.
Way out west, another bubble is forming
- Sydney Morning Herald
- 23 May 2011
Regulators are warning that a new real estate bubble may be forming across the US grain belt -- and National Australia Bank is right in the middle.