Corporate Chinese interest in Australian rural land assets is gaining momentum and there are several players on the hunt across a wide spectrum of ­sectors: sugarcane, cotton, wool, tomatoes and grapes for wine.

China's Cofco Corporation has acquired an equity stake in Australian sugar producer Tully Sugar and is said to be pursuing a take-over.

Australian Liberal senator Bill Heffernan warns that sovereign wealth funds need to be watched because some were "already acquiring other sovereigns' wealth to protect their own food security tasks".

There are growing concerns that a legislative loophole could allow vast tracks of Australia's farmland to be sold to the Chinese Government.

El-Nahda for Integrated Solutions signed an agreement with the White Nile Governorate for a 30-year lease on 60,000 feddans [25,210 ha] of land on which it will build a large-scale commercial rice farm.

Canadian super fund manager Alberta Investment Management Corp has completed contracts for its purchase of the Kimberley Meat Co beef processing facility in Western Australia’s Kimberley region that includes pastoral leases covering 475,000 ha.

Qantas Super plans to generate a higher proportion of returns from the agricultural sector after committing $200 million to the development of high-yielding horticultural crops on properties managed by farmland investor goFARM.

The largest grain growing operation in Western Australia is expected to fetch close to $200 million after its owners, the Saudi Arabian government and a Perth-headquartered agricultural fund decided to sell.

More than a decade after subsidiaries of multinational rubber firm Socfin Group forcibly cleared and seized the farms, burial grounds and sacred forests of Bunong indigenous communities in Mondulkiri province, Cambodia, the company now seeks to collect tens of thousands of dollars from these farmers for the cost of “land preparation” and other fees.

For Minneapolis-based Proterra Investment Partners, the sale represents a second lucrative exit in its agricultural funds, after it sold a 22,386-hectare cropping portfolio in Victoria and South Australia last year.

A large Canadian pension fund which counts the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and defence force workers as members has acquired 35 vineyards in Australia from wine group Casella

A mass board resignation at the Chinese firm that bought Australia’s largest dairy farm has fuelled concerns it may not fulfil its promises of local investment and environmental protection.

The Chinese company joining forces with Gina Rinehart to buy the Kidman cattle empire has one hurdle to clear in a separate deal to secure a cluster of stations in the Goldfields.

The largest agricultural investment under the federal government's new significant investment visa (SIV) program has been made in the $174 million float candidate Mort & Co, which owns and operates Australia's biggest independent feedlot business.

Government considers the development of two plots of land on the Ord River irrigation scheme so risky that it demanded a $150 million a year guarantee from the Chinese company behind the farming project.

Siva Group's oil palm plantation land deal in Papua New Guinea described as "one of the worst land development schemes ever".

The Insight Global Farmland Fund, has snapped up Forrest Hill Station in the Northern Territory and all its cattle for $6.4 million in a deal negotiated by Elders.

Black River Asset Management, a hedge fund run by an arm of the world's largest agriculture company, Cargill, has increased its stake in the unlisted agricultural company BFB Group

The 16,000-hectare farm which Första AP-fonden bought in Australia in December was one of a clutch of purchases of farmland, worth some $100m, by the pension fund.

Mawashi, Qatar’s livestock company, plans to invest in industrial agriculture and food sources outside Qatar to serve the vision and objectives of the Qatar National Food Security Programme, it was announced yesterday.

There are unconfirmed reports that former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke is representing a Shanghai-based company wanting to farm all 15,000 hectares of the land being developed as part of the Ord irrigation project in Western Australia.

Tony Hales, managing director of Stadia Trustees, puts forward the case for including farmland in clients’ self-invested personal pensions (UK)

Two of the last big Australian-owned sugar mills, Maryborough and Proserpine, could soon be sold to foreign buyers in takeover deals worth more than $350 million.

A number of growers in the Great Southern have been approached by a prominent Chinese company with offers to buy farms.

As controversy continues to bubble in Australia over the latest big local farmland buy-up and what it means for food production, it’s worth looking to see where these foreign raiders are coming from, who’s backing them and how other countries are tightening their regulations to stop them.

The Serious Fraud Office has been brought into the controversy over a Maori trust's move to buy thousands of hectares of prime Southland farmland, after revelations that an alleged fraudster is involved: bankrupt Australian "kaumatua" Shane Wenzel.

Duxton Capital is the agriculture, wine and pubs empire founded by former Deutsche Asset Management heavyweight Ed Peter and backed by prominent investors including the billionaire Oatley family, hedge fund manager Richard Magides and Phil King’s Regal Partners.

Australia-based Costa Group has launched a new blueberry farming project on the Bolaven Plateau in Laos, starting with 17 hectares of crops at Paksong.

The Singaporean-owned company has about 7600 hectares of farmland including a network of 25 properties in the Murray Valley and near Bendigo and in the Victorian Wimmera, carrying about 40,000 breeding sows.

Under a proposal from Australia's federal government the 15 per cent concessional rate of withholding tax for foreign investors in agricultural land will be lifted to 30 per cent by July 1 next year.