Australia

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.

China's most powerful agricultural company Beidahuang Group, BDH, has made offers on a number of farms in the state's south west, amounting to about 80,000 hectares of land.

Australian farmer Doug Clarke says farmers should not be criticised for making a commercial return from selling their farms to Chinese investors, if the government’s current rules and regulations allow it.

China's most powerful agricultural company, Beidahuang Group, is looking to acquire 80,000 hectares of Western Australia farmland, with several farmers on the verge of signing.

Agricultural analyst at Citi Investment Research, Tim Mitchell, recently calculated that "rural raiders" from overseas had spent "well in excess of $12 billion" over the past four years on Australian agribusinesses and farms.