Chinese buyers are hatching bids for parcels of Australian land covering an area three-quarters the size of England complete with nearly 200,000 cattle, highlighting China’s growing demand for meat to feed its rising middle classes.
China’s increasingly carnivorous diet has seen companies fork out almost $20bn on cross-border food deals in the past five years alone, according to Dealogic. But it has also brought conflict as countries such as the US fret about their own food security issues.
Now it is the turn of Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s new prime minister, whose government must weigh the benefits of inward agricultural investment against concerns over increasing foreign ownership.