Several Shawi communities have learned that a Korean company, ECOAMERICA, has applied for the registration and titling of over 72,000 ha of land in their territories, at a price of 80 cents a hectare, for agriculture and logging.

New Zealanders could not afford to be "totally xenophobic" towards Chinese investment because it has brought jobs and capital into the country, Prime Minister John Key said Monday.

The Chinese article on the deal emphasized that Chongqing citizens would get the soy oil at a very cheap price ("价格将更便宜").

Opposition activists in Kazakhstan called on the government on Saturday to stop Chinese investment in the country's natural resources, saying Beijing could be preparing a land grab in Central Asia

NZS may not have successfully introduced our farming practices to Uruguay but it managed to introduce New Zealanders' strategy of acquiring highly leveraged farm land with the intention of making a large, non-taxable capital profit on disposal.

China should use its huge foreign exchange reserves to expand investment in the agricultural sector overseas, in an effort to increase domestic market supply, says researcher with government-owned economic institute.

Last week, bids closed for an 83% stake in Fonterra's biggest supplier, Dairy Holdings, which oversees 72 South Island farms. Bidders reportedly include Chinese dairy giant Bright Dairy, a pastoral fund owned by Australian investment bank Macquarie Group, British private equity firm Terra Firma. US private equity firm Carlyle Group and the Harvard Endowment Fund.

“They are moving in,” said Carlo Lovatelli, president of the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries. “They are looking for land, looking for reliable partners. But what they would like to do is run the show alone.”

Smallholding income can be far more productive for rural areas than export orientated or foreign-owned large farms because any income earned is spent in the rural area.

Uruguay's president said on Wednesday he wanted to raise taxes on the country's biggest landowners -- including Argentine-based agricultural company El Tejar and George Soros's Adecoagro -- to boost the state's share of bumper farming and forestry sector profits

A new study into how virtual water moves around the world offers an explanation for the farmland leasing strategy, reports New Scientist

China's enormous sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corporation, may have set aside up to 1.5% or about $6 billion of its massive foreign exchange reserves to invest in New Zealand assets, including potentially dairy farms.