Australia

Major Brazilian meatpacker Minerva Foods and part-owner Saudi Arabia's SALIC have bought two sheep-focused meat processors in Western Australia for almost $48 million with plans to expand their operations.

A controlling interest in the Murray River Land Trust Portfolio of about 15,000ha "owned, contracted and optioned land" near Strathmerton has been taken by a private equity firm.

Investment platform iPartners is pushing into the agricultural sector, launching a $20 million fund to acquire Australian farmland for protected koala habitat to generate returns through its use as a biodiversity offset.

CBRE Agribusiness managing director David Goodfellow says large institutional buyers have a head start on family businesses.

Agriculture, long overlooked as a handy defensive investment space by fund managers more interested in infrastructure, commercial real estate and shopping centres, has become the focus of big spending activity of late.

Global investment company Proterra Investment Partners is divesting its Australian farm portfolio – the Corinella Group Pty Ltd consisting of 49 farms across southeastern Australia with expectations of fetching A$350 million.

An Australian cattle farm was used by Chinese-owned company United World Enterprises to lure retirees into investing up to $46 million for fake agritourism and aged-care village schemes.

An Australian company backed by Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board has purchased a grain farm in Yuna, Australia for about $30 million

SALIC owns a whopping aggregation in Western Australia, Merredin Farms, which produces grain and livestock over 211,000 hectares and grows around 120,000 tonnes of grain alone each year.

PSP, one of Canada's largest pension investment managers, now adds a further 40,000 hectares to its large farmland holdings in New South Wales.

Complex web of data reveals large swathes of country controlled by small number of billionaires and large companies

The newly merged entity in Victoria, Australia will include more than 500 hectares of orchards, water rights, two packing houses and additional land.