Australia

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.

Investors are thinking big when it comes to farmland purchases, reports Andrew Shirley in Knight Frank's Wealth Report 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.

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.

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.

Macquarie Agricultural Funds Management owns 31,500sq km of Australian grazing land on which it runs cattle and sheep.

According to Michael Yabsley of the Australian Gulf Council, agricultural land is among the top asset classes in Australia being considered by Gulf investors who have placed food security at the top of their priorities.

Glencore has an 8.7% share of the "addressable" global grain trade and farming operations covering 270,000ha in Argentina, Australia, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Ukraine.

“We are looking at rice farmlands as it is the main food crop,” said Renatto Barbieri, Galtere's portfolio manager. “Have you heard of anyone dying because of not eating sugar or corn or soybeans?”

Rural MPs, especially those from NSW and Queensland, have been fielding increasing complaints from constituents in recent months about the level of foreign ownership of Australian farms and agricultural businesses.

The UAE plans to hold further talks with officials from Australia with a view to invest in farmland as part of its plan to tackle food security.

China's Cofco Corporation has acquired an equity stake in Australian sugar producer Tully Sugar and is said to be pursuing a take-over.