While Chinese investors, like Ms Qiao, are in Australia looking at farms, an Australian real estate company has headed to China to find buyers for Australian farming properties.

There's been considerable disquiet over the presence of foreign buyers in the farmland market place, but the stats on the extent of foreign ownership and the emerging trends are far from clear.

Almost half of Australian executives surveyed by an international law firm favor higher trade barriers to protect the nation’s food supply and see foreign investment in agriculture and farmland as a threat.

Australian business council wants Qatar to invest more in food production in Australia, similar to what Qatar's Hassad Foods is pursuing.

There is nothing new about foreign investment in Australian agribusiness. But a number of things are happening now which have not occurred before, writes Mike Pope.

The shift of power in Australia’s Federal Parliament, which is now largely in the hands of a few independents representing rural and regional constituencies, combined with the increasingly vocal calls for scrutiny of foreign investment has sent signals of a more protectionist stance for Australian agriculture.

Foreign interests including state-owned companies from China and the Middle East are increasingly looking to Australia to secure their food production by purchasing key agricultural assets.

The agribusiness managed investment scheme sector is not expected to escape the economic downturn that has hit the financial services industry.

Privately-owned Australian Food & Agriculture Company has sold its 13 New South Wales farms spanning 225,405 ha to NASDAQ-listed Agriculture & Natural Solutions Acquisition Corporation for $780 million.

ANZ Banking Group violated its own policies and international human rights standards by financing a Cambodian sugar company that seized land from local farmers, according to a report released by an Australian government body that monitors corporate behavior overseas.

Over the past couple of decades, China has embraced trade agreements that oblige it to import foods and implemented policies that favour the development of larger farms and massive agribusiness and food corporations.

A new $3 billion fund jointly initiated by the Beijing Agricultural Investment Fund and Yuhu Agriculture Investment Pty Ltd. is planning to invest $3 billion capital in various projects in Australia.

An influx of foreign funds seeking Australian farmland has pushed lawmakers to consider legislation that would increase scrutiny of overseas purchases after foreign ownership of land almost doubled since 1984.

Findings from the Federal Government’s latest annual Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land Register released last week show the total area of ag land with a level of offshore ownership has fallen just 0.3 percent from 47.7 million hectares to 47.56m ha last year.

An Australian investment company has joined forces with a leading Chinese bidder for the iconic Kidman pastoral empire.

A hedge fund run by an arm of the world's largest agricultural company, Cargill, has enjoyed another strong profit from its Australian farming investment – the land and logistics company BFB Group.

In four years, Hassad Foods has accumulated 255,000 hectares of agricultural land with the aim of producing 165,000 tonnes of grain and 100,000 lambs annually.

Report examines the driving factors behind foreign investment in Australian agriculture and describes processes by which foreign investment in farmland is monitored and regulated in Australia and other selected countries.

The hefty mark-up for the 5.5 million ha property could leave foreign bidders in the box seat, testing the government's appetite for foreign ownership less than two years after it rejected China-led bids for an energy grid and agricultural company. energy grid and agricultural company.

With first round bids due imminently, the high expectations could leave foreign bidders in the box seat, testing the government’s appetite for foreign ownership of sensitive assets less than two years after it rejected China-led bids for a major energy grid and agricultural company.

The amount of Australian farm land owned by Chinese interests has surged tenfold in the past year, climbing above 14 million hectares or 2.5 per cent of all agricultural land.

Hassad Food – owned by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund the Qatar Investment Authority – is selling another major portion of its Australian farmland portfolio worth about $80 million.

China has replaced the United States as the second-largest foreign owner of agricultural land in Australia. (The U.K. is No. 1.)

The sale of Cubbie Station to a Chinese-led consortium has divided Australia on the issue of foreign investment.

Australians do realise the value of what is being sold, a land agent and rural property specialist said, "but their hands are tied because they can't raise the money".

Public opinion is clearly against the Crafar farms sale on the basis that NZ is "selling the farm", while selling a controlling stake in a processing plant is seen as another issue altogether. There is a strong argument for conditionality either way, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

Global institutional investors, led by Canadian pension funds, are piling into the sector, a trend mirroring growing allocations to the farming and related rural sectors worldwide.

Shadow minister for agriculture and food security, John Cobb, said it was concerning that in the past three years there had been a 10-fold increase in foreign investment in ownership and control of agricultural supply lines.

The creation this week of the 'Save our Farms' campaign to block foreign ownership of New Zealand farm land has fired up a debate that needs to be had.

Chinese investment in Australian farms increased 10-fold in the past six months, as buyers see opportunities in agriculture. “Chinese are wealthy and they are looking for a secure investment in beef, cotton and grain properties, ” said John Burke, an agent for Elders Ltd.