Agreements between the State Government and Chinese-owned Kimberley Agricultural Investment were reached this week, overing 7400ha at Goomig Farmlands, near Kununurra, as part of the Ord Stage 2 project

Shanghai Zhongfu-owned Kimberley Agricultural Investments is the new owner of Carlton Hill and Ivanhoe, which operate as one station on the doorstep of Kununurra.

Hassad Australia, the $469 million agricultural land company owned by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, has delivered a $3.46 million loss and is yet to make a profit since beginning in Australia in 2010.

Foreign investment rules controlling overseas ownership of farmland and agribusinesses are not as tough in Australia as in many countries', but the Business Council of Australia says they still confuse and discourage potential investment.

Chinese conglomerate Shanghai Pengxin Group Co Ltd is set to become the largest farmland owner in Australia if it is successful in the acquisitions of two cattle farms for A$1 billion ($720 million).

First State Super follows US and Canadian super funds with major investment in Australian almond plantations.

The West Australia State Government is set to take to market a big parcel of land on the Ord River irrigation scheme in a litmus test of its relationship with a major Chinese investor in WA’s far north.

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

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.

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

Kimberley Agricultural Investment, owned by Chinese company Shanghai Zhongfu, has told the State Government "on an informal basis" it wants freehold ownership of the 6000ha Knox Plain area, in northern Australia.

The Abbott government's plan to increase scrutiny of foreign farm purchases looks set to pass the Senate despite a simmering internal Coalition row over Chinese investment.

Kevin Rudd has committed to double the amount of land for farming in northern Australia and simplify investment rules for foreign investors, to take advantage of the boom in Asian demand for produce

Companies linked to China's biggest agricultural conglomerate are being flooded with offers to buy or lease "hundreds of thousands" of hectares of land in Australia's Wheatbelt in the early stages of their bid to create an independent grain supply chain from the port of Albany.

Hassad Australia chief executive Tom McKeon said the company employed people from local communities, supported local businesses and paid tax. The company owns 11 farms over 250,000ha in Australia, including three in WA.

With foreign investment in agriculture already occurring in Australia, many within the agricultural industry believe we need to be wary.

"Because of the nation's limited agricultural resources, we have to look overseas," Jiang Hua, a COFCO board member said. The company is trying to connect China's consumer market with overseas supplies of commodities such as sugar, wheat and soybeans.

The board of Australia’s largest fruit and vegetable company, Costa Group, has agreed to a cut-price $1.5 billion takeover offer from a consortium headed by private equity firm Paine Schwartz Partners.

Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest says conservation and heritage considerations must be balanced against the need for farming, after outbiding the Yi-Martuwarra people for a vast land holding on their territories.

Papua New Guinea landowners are getting very little in the way of rent for vast tracts of land that have been leased out under controversial leases. Interview with Colin Filer.

UAE foreign investment in food production have so far focused on leasing Pakistan and Sudan’s agricultural land, with new prospects in Cambodian rice, Canadian wheat and Australian beef. Alongside the strategic deals at the national level, private investment has followed which should open new channels of trade, for example, Al Qudra Holding has plans to grow grain and vegetables in Vietnam and Croatia as well as Pakistan.

High on Chongqing's shopping list is more than 333,000 hectares of farmland, which Huang said would reduce the city's dependence, for example, on imported edible oil.

Macquarie Group Limited looks to be moving in on more agricultural investments with the launch of a new fund to target dairy farms in Australia.

The Swedish National Pension Fund is teaming up with US institutional investor TIAA-CREF to buy farmland in Australia.

A group of Riverina farmers is demanding answers from the federal government over the sale of BFB, a large diversified agribusiness in Temora, which is being sold by a US private equity investor to a Canadian pension fund.

Australian agricultural funds manager Laguna Bay Pastoral Company, which acts for North American pension funds, has recently bought eight dairy farms in the Smithton area.

A Chinese tycoon's purchase of vast wheat fields in France highlights China's increasing acquisition of foreign farmland as the Asian giant seeks to keep up with its massive population's growing appetite.

While most of the big corporate money has been falling over itself to buy into Australia's largest landowner, S. Kidman & Co, Rifa has quietly bought a total of seven properties in the last few months.

Labor’s trade spokeswoman Senator Penny Wong has slammed the Coalition’s agricultural foreign investment policy at today’s premier grains industry event.

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.