A Chinese-backed company’s dealings with a family were put under the blowtorch yesterday at the start of a Supreme Court trial into the collapse of an $8 million deal to buy farmland in Western Australia

Vicstock Grain and its Chinese backers (Beidahuang) have dramatically scaled back their cropping operations in the Wheatbelt three years after a $70 million spending spree on farmland.

One of China’s largest beef producers, Honda Agriculture, is looking to buy up to $100 million worth of cattle property in Australia over the next 12 months.

Alternative investment management firm Blue Sky is targeting North American institutional investors with a new strategy that will invest in Australian agriculture and related industries.

A Chinese company developing farm land in the Ord River area has warned it will not proceed with the project under a raft of conditions set out by Australia's environmental watchdog.

One of Canada's largest pension funds, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, has made its first rural land purchase in Australia through central Queensland's Hewitt Cattle Company.

Giant US investment fund TIAA-CREF expects Australia's ageing farmers and a lack of sons and daughters willing to inherit their farms will lead to large numbers of properties hitting the market over the coming decade.

Australia's National Farmers’ Federation has criticised the Abbott government’s reduced threshold for foreign farm purchases.

The announcement of the sale - which is expected to attract significant foreign interest - comes a month after the government said it would clamp down on foreign ownership of agricultural land.

New Zealand dairy giant will launch a fund that will pool capital from investors such as sovereign wealth funds and pension funds to invest in land and fixtures of dairy farms through a farm-owning entity.

Mitchell's Yougawalla Pastoral Company the latest Australian cattle station business to be put up for sale. Foreign corporations have spent some A$63.5 million buying into the sector in the past month.

Sale and leaseback agreements were almost unheard of in agriculture five years ago, but a few major deals recently have put them on the map, according to property group Colliers International.

Australia's agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, has defended the government’s newly tightened foreign investment regime before key agricultural industry stakeholders.

Foreign investors own 10% of Australia's agricultural land. But that could soon rise thanks to two huge projects being developed in Northern Territory's Top End with the help of foreign investors.

California-based Finistere Ventures is in Australia speaking to potential backers after its first close of a new $US150 million venture capital fund. The Finistere II Agtech (agricultural technology) Fund has secured the backing of German giant Bayer CropScience, as well as Canadian investment firm AVAC.

The foreign ownership debate in Australia needs to evolve to – or be merged with – a broader debate about the future of the agricultural sector.

China's largest privately owned agribusiness company and the Perich family from Sydney are looking to buy a $100 million dairy in western New South Wales.

Australia's new threshold on foreign investment in agriculture would be cumulative, so someone with a $14m investment would have to seek approval before trying to purchase an ­additional $1m property.

The Coalition has increased scrutiny of foreign purchases of rural land, but how much is currently owned overseas and are the concerns valid?

New research reveals grain growers in Western Australia are overwhelmingly supportive of foreign investment.

A new type of property deal is entering the agribusiness space as investor interest in the sector grows, according to property group Colliers International.

KPMG says food and farming is one of the "hot sectors" for Chinese overseas investment in 2015.

Americans were the biggest buyers of New Zealand land in the past five years, although buyers from China topped the list in 2014.

NeglectAssist is warning private investors to watch out for exotic Australian land investments promising both security and high returns.

China’s biggest potential investment in Australian agriculture, a $1 billion high-risk foray in the fabled Ord River irrigation scheme.

Agribusiness executive David Goodfellow is heading up a project for Zhejiang RIFA Holding Group to build an Australian livestock property portfolio of similar scale to Macquarie Bank's big Paraway Pastoral business.

Communities in the Collingwood Bay area of Oro Province, Papua New Guinea are fighting plans for mining on their customary land after winning a court victory against illegal leases for logging and oil palm held by Malaysia's KLK.

ACE Farming, backed by institutional investors, has stayed out of the limelight, quietly building up its portfolio of 18 dairy farms across Victoria.

The Nationals, and some regional Liberals, claim that without the register, Australia's food security and sovereignty could be jeopardised.

So much for the Ord as a ‘food bowl’. So much too for a new partnership with indigenous people. As in transactions with land-grabbers in poorer lands, the valued partnership now is with big money.