The new Australian head of Singapore-listed agribusiness Olam International wants to build more partnerships with institutional investors to open up investment in the agricultural sector.

Foreign investors have spent a record $12 billion buying up Australian farmland and agricultural businesses over the past year, but have put off investing a further $14 billion until the outcome of a Senate inquiry in March 2012, a new report by Ferrier Hodgson says.

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.

Foreign ownership of Australian land and agribusiness will soon be monitored.

Australia's center-left Labor government said Tuesday it will examine foreign ownership of the country's rural land and agricultural food production in response to a spate of takeovers that have triggered anxiety about job losses and broader concerns about food security.

Australia's opposition leader Tony Abbott said his Liberal-National coalition of center-right parties could revise the country's foreign investment laws if it wins power in the Aug. 21 general election.

A rush of foreign investment interest in Australian farmland is stirring new concerns about just how much overseas ownership of local agricultural resources is too much.

Cambodian families who were forcibly displaced by Phnom Penh Sugar Company have received a promised payment from Australia’s ANZ bank, which financed the sugar company from 2011-2014

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

The Sustainable Agriculture Fund, backed by Australia's biggest superannuation funds, has delivered a $4.7 million full year profit and recorded a small rise in the value of its rural property holdings

Logging companies in PNG are using special agricultural leases to clear vast tracts of rainforest timber, on the promise of roads and economic development for remote villages. Jemima Garrett investigates.

On his farm at Coleambally, NSW, John Ward admits he is feeling emotional about how foreign investment into Australian agricultural land has been handled.

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.

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.

World food security fears may be driving the foreign rush to buy Australian farmland and agribusinesses, says Nationals' leader, Warren Truss.

In an era when many countries are starting to worry about food security, foreign agribusiness might buy into the rural water market here in Australia and use permanent water holdings to dictate how our farmland should be used.

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund agricultural company launched Hassad Australia last year, aimed at ensuring that livestock and grain needs for Qatar, from Australian farmland, are met.

A trio of dairy farms spanning a combined 570 hectares in the state’s north have been listed for sale after more than a decade in the hands of Swedish owners.

“Probably the biggest growth is in working with large institutional investors at large pension funds and insurance companies, and also some quite large family offices,” which manages over 300,000 ha of farmland and timberland in the US, Europe and Australia.

Australian farmland is an appealing asset class to Canadian-backed investment group, Warakirri Asset Management, with the firm having launched a new fund which expects to raise $500 million.

The sale includes just under 300,000 head of cattle, nine pastoral leases across the Northern Territory and Queensland totalling around 3.2 million hectares, and a 90 per cent stake in a feedlot business in Indonesia.

One of Canada’s largest pension funds acquires majority stake in Australian company that owns 44,167 ha of arable land, as well as significant grain storage, fertilizer, agronomy, livestock, farming and logistics businesses.

Draft report on Australia agriculture regulation calls for the sale of any farmland or agribusiness worth less than $250 million to foreign interests to be exempt from any review process.

Australia's cattle station sector is set to reach more than $1 billion-worth of deals in less than a year, with the two biggest sources of investment being the controversial areas of foreign investment and superannuation.

A Chinese company with strong links to the family of Li Ka-shing, one of Asia’s richest men, is on the verge of securing farms covering almost 70,000ha after the biggest single offering of freehold land in Western Australia’s history.

Dongfang Modern said in a statement that it was buying 5,270 hectares of land via two deals in the province of Jiangxi for $76 million. The company will own more than 8,000 hectares after the deals are completed.

Chinese investors have spent $120 million in the last two months buying rural properties across Australia and the signs are that the buying spree is only the beginning, with more than $1 billion worth of deals in play.

12.4 per cent of Australia’s agricultural land has some level of foreign ownership, with 95 per cent of this land in the hands of just 45 overseas companies.

Some Australian farmers are voicing their concerns about the growing presence of foreign investment in their region.

A US pension fund investor that flies under the radar has continued its spending spree on quality agricultural land in WA with the purchase of two farms in Grass Patch for about $9 million.