Saudi Arabia's largest dairy company said Wednesday it is buying Argentine farm operator Fondomonte S.A. for $83 million to secure access to a supply of animal feed.

Foreign investors have spent a record $12 billion buying up Australian farmland and agricultural businesses over the past year, but have put off investing a further $14 billion until the outcome of a Senate inquiry in March 2012, a new report by Ferrier Hodgson says.

President Yangouvonda who is now visiting Qatar said that there are a number of investment fields in his country such as agricultural, cattle breeding, tourism and mineral resources.

Hassad Food Company is keen to secure food supplies for Qatar at reasonable prices through local and international investments in various countries, according to an article in the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry memorial book ‘40 Years of Excellence and Achievement.’

Katar Ticaret ve Sanayi Odası’nın “Mükemmeliyet ve Başarının 40 Yılı” adlı hatıra kitabında yayımlanan bir makalede Hassad Gıda Şirketi yerel ve uluslararası yatırımlarla Katar’a makul fiyatlarla gıda sağlamakta hevesli olduğu belirtiliyor.

Farmers have urged the state government to establish a register that would list Victorian farms that have been bought by foreign owners. The call comes as concerns grow over the level of foreign ownership of Australian farms and over the control of productive food resources.

Hassad plans to spend $US350 million ($318 million) in Australia to secure food supplies for Qatar, which imports 95 per cent of its food.

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".

Under the National Food Security Program, Qatari companies would produce five basic food items -- white and red meat, rice, sugar and grains (including wheat) -- in countries like Sudan, India, Australia, Argentina, Turkey and Brazil, among others.

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.

Local stock and station agents in Western District Australia estimate the Qatar government paid a premium of up to 20 per cent in order to secure the controversial deal,

The Middle Eastern company Hassad Foods, through Australian representatives, has been pinpointed as set to spend $45 million on five large western Victorian propertie

Government-backed companies, as Hassad Food, have begun buying up farmland around the world, with Australia’s vast tracts of top quality primary production land a prime target.

Qatar will make more investments overseas to produce key agricultural and horticultural commodities to ensure food supply security at home and will simultaneously focus on raising self-sufficiency in local produce.

Chinese and other eastern investors are looking to buy agriculture land and agribusiness across the globe, and Ukraine is increasingly on their radar.

Report says that GCC investment in farmland in Africa and Latin America will continue to grow.

Qatar’s Hassad Food, a unit of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, plans to purchase farmland in Turkey to grow crops and raise livestock, the company’s chairman said.

Former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, is leading a push to get Arabs to invest in Australian farmland as part of a long term food security strategy for oil-rich Gulf States

Food security is back on the agenda with a bang, but while countries with money but little land want to invest elsewhere, few efforts are as emotive as a global "land grab".

Countries in north Africa and the Middle East are urgently seeking ways to soften the blow of surging food prices for their citizens, alarmed by protests against authoritarian rulers from Algeria to Yemen.

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.

Argentina Tourism Minister Carlos Meyer has hailed Qatar Airways’ flights from Buenos Aires to Doha as an important step for enhanced ties between the two countries, including farmland acquisitions.

Qatar gives special attention to investments in Sudan in agricultural fields and livestock.

Qatar está en conversaciones preliminares con los gobiernos de Argentina y Ucrania para comprar tierras agrícolas destinadas a la producción de cereales.

Qatar is in preliminary talks with the governments of Argentina and Ukraine to buy farmland for cereals production, the head of the Gulf Arab state's national food security programme said on Wednesday.

Hassad Food knows how to shop. The $1b subsidiary of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund finalised a $500m agreement last year to grow wheat & rice on 100,000 ha in Sudan and has announced plans to invest $700m worldwide this year.

Hassad Food, owned by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, plans to acquire a sugar project in Brazil with a capacity to produce 25 million tonnes per annum, 70% of which will be shipped to Qatar.

The Qatari company is about to bring home the first shipment of its own wheat produced overseas, and to start producing its own sugar in Brazil

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".

As the world's available farming land shrinks in the face of population growth, climate change and soil degradation, Australia's vast tracts of land are going to be increasingly important for global food security. Is the sell-off in Australia's long term interests?