Western Gulf Advisory, a Bahrain-Zurich based company, plans to invest $1 billion into the Australian economy, including farm acquisitions, over the next few years.

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.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) said that so far trade and investment deals with partners in the south are merely reinforcing a long-standing trend with the north in which African countries export farm produce, minerals, ores, and crude oil, and import manufactured goods.

"A large [Indian] agri-export company is already in advanced stages of discussions with the Paraguayan government and may announce its foray into the country shortly” says Paraguay’s ambassador in New Delhi,

A lawyer advising the NZ Government how to make it easier to sell assets overseas is working for the Chinese company wanting to buy the Crafar farms, the Green Party says.

Brazilian farm companies are in a race of investments with every major company making new acquisitions and major capital investments.

Business leaders and even top government officials have been left surprised by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s announcement last week that the country would impose a two-year moratorium on the clearing of natural forests, which may affect various foreign investment projects.

Between 2007 and mid-2008, Gulf states and their government-backed businesses spent US$15 billion (Dh55bn) in sub-Saharan Africa alone, much of it in the drive for food security

South Africa, which became a net importer of food two years ago after two decades of net exporting, is developing African agricultural ambitions of its own.

Foreign investors are not just snapping up Brazilian farmland – they are taking a bigger stake in sugar operators too, tripling their participation within three years.

In Brazil, El Tejar and others are investing in ownership and hope to capture land appreciation. BrasilAgro brags that it sold one farm for a gain of 116 percent in just 17 months.

Groups issue sign-on letter calling on the World Bank to stop funding oil palm plantations.

Executives from the South Korean company Hyundai are negotiating with state governments for the purchase of land in Brazil, with the objective of planting and exporting soya to South Korea.

Tareq al- Zadjali, director general of the Arab Organization for Agriculture Development, wants to see more Arabs investing in agriculture within the Arab worlds’ borders rather than buying farms abroad in Asia and Africa.

Wall Street financiers now interested in channeling billions of new dollars into cropland include heavy hitters like UBS, Morgan Stanley and Rabobank.

Cargill and Bunge among firms setting up funds to buy farms in Asia and South America.

The World Bank is marching ahead with plans to facilitate global land grabs, while not releasing a report that confirms the negative impacts of these deals for local communities.

"Investors like Citadel Capital and Goldman Sachs must be stopped from acquiring large tracts of land in Africa because this practice has become a serious threat to the continent's food sovereignty"

Capital flows into Africa, include farmland acquisitions by foreign investors, rose 16 percent in 2008 to a record $62 billion even as FDI that year fell 20 percent worldwide

Morocco plans to lease 30,000 ha of farmland per year to improve yields, satisfy growing national demand and boost export sales, its agriculture minister said on Thursday.

Radical economic, structural and social change may be spawned by growing demand for land in certain countries, and so may love affairs, says the World Bank.

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.

Companies from the kingdom are meeting with representatives of the state of Western Australia to discuss buying equity in farms and investing in the wheat supply chain.

After trumpeting Chinese investment in "a very large agricultural project" in the Bahamas that would be up and running by September, senior government officials are now backing off the subject.

China may set up large pork and chicken operations in Australia as it strives to keep up a burgeoning demand for meat among Chinese consumers.

Such huge transfers of agricultural power must surely come with consequences that are worthy of closer regulatory inspection.

Korean investors are nervous about trusting African governments’ guarantees, and about complex and frequently arbitrary regulations.

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.

Someone needs to put Fonterra and the Feds into the same room.

The Chinese-backed company seeking to buy 29 North Island dairy farms is also trying to buy up to 100 farms in Otago and Southland and build a dairy factory in Southland.