Australia

Foreign investment in Australia's food chain is increasing at a rate that is causing concern, and not just for people on the land.

The investment is to enable Wellard grow the business through a number of identified agribusinesses opportunities throughout the wider Asian region.

Former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, is leading a push to get Arabs to invest in Australian farmland as part of a long term food security strategy for oil-rich Gulf States

China is gearing up for a multi-billion-dollar investment push into the Australian agricultural sector to secure food supplies after a senior official admitted the country would face pressure supplying farm produce to its 1.3 billion people over the next five years.

Mauritian-listed JPT Capital Agrifund intends to invest Stg50 million ($A80 million) in wheat farms in Australia.

Alberta pension fund pays $415 million for more than 1500 square miles of forest in Australia to be converted to timber plantations and agriculture.

Olam executive sees good side to overseas investment in Australian farming.

Hong Kong-based Nexis Holdings has a $500 million budget to purchase farmland between northern New South Wales and North Queensland.

Is the Sunshine Coast at risk of losing the farm to foreign interests?

Several national companies and even the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the capital's sovereign fund, are planning investments in agriculture in countries as diverse as Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Australia, Romania and the United States.

Foreign farmland acquisitions are a telling vote of no confidence in international markets by food-deficient countries, which understandably fear a repeat of the 2008 food crisis may deny them opportunities to buy grains and other essential soft commodities at any price.

"We want to make agriculture sexy," says the head of Macquaraie's Retail Agribuiness operation.