Australian banking giant ANZ has come under fire for its response to a scandal over its financing of a sugar plantation previously linked to forced evictions and child labour in Kampong Speu province.
Follow up from 2014 Oxfam report "Banking on Shaky Ground – Australia's big four banks and land grabs", asserts that all four banks have failed to ensure the affected communities' rights to food, shelter and a sustainable livelihood were restored.
Almost two years ago Oxfam revealed that Australia’s Big 4 Banks — the ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac — are backing agriculture and timber companies linked to land grabs in developing countries.
Billionaire trucker Lindsay Fox is making a late bid to keep Australia’s largest outback cattle empire in local hands with a push to buy the sprawling S. Kidman & Co stations that are set to fall into Chinese hands.
A Chinese company with strong links to the family of Li Ka-shing, one of Asia’s richest men, is on the verge of securing farms covering almost 70,000ha after the biggest single offering of freehold land in Western Australia’s history.
Chinese investors are buying up macadamia orchards in Queensland and New South Wales to protect their own supply
Northern NSW premium meat exporter Bindaree Beef set up a 10,000 square metre cutting-edge facility in QingDao, North Eastern China, aimed at value-adding Australian beef, is due to be finished by the end of 2016.
Chinese businessman Lu Xianfeng said he wants to increase production, to meet a booming Chinese demand.
Dongfang Modern said in a statement that it was buying 5,270 hectares of land via two deals in the province of Jiangxi for $76 million. The company will own more than 8,000 hectares after the deals are completed.
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.
"There is no limit to the scale we can achieve" says Farmland Partners CEO, as his company plans to branch out from US into Australia and New Zealand.
Cargill’s global asset management business, Black River, has recently extended its Australian agricultural land asset portfolio, buying two Queensland cattle grazing properties near Mackay for conversion into higher-return sugarcane production.
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Italy supports sustainable agriculture projects in Ghana
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