Foreigners buy more Aussie land - but Chinese still small owners

First details from the register of overseas owners of Australian farms have "confirmed" a rise in foreign interest - although Chinese buyers, whose purchases have attracted particular controversy, are nowhere near top of the league.
 

Foreigners own 52.1m hectares of Australian agricultural land - an area bigger than that of Germany and Greece combined, and larger than all the US states bar Alaska and Texas, the first releases from the Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land show.
 

That figure, equivalent to 13.6% of Australia's total farmland, is bigger than the 49.6m hectares suggested by an official survey three years ago, and the 44.9m hectares shown by 2010 research.
 

"This common perception that the level of foreign ownership has been increasing seems confirmed," said Barnaby Joyce, Australia's acting prime minister.

China worries
 

Indeed, the formation of the register, which Australia's government set the groundwork for last year, follows considerable concerns over the extent of foreign purchases of the county's farms - particularly over investment from China, a huge importer of agricultural commodities.

Such worries have been underlined by the government's rejection last November of a China-backed purchase of the giant S Kidman & Co estate, covering more than 100,000 square kilometres (25m acres), with a decision on a second, $280m bid deferred in April.
 

However, the register showed that Chinese buyers own, at 1.46m hectares, less than 3% of the Australian land owned by foreign investors, and 0.4% of the country's farmland overall.
 

Britons are the biggest foreign landowners, holding 27.5m hectares, more than half the total for overseas investors, and 7.2% of Australia's overall agricultural area.
 

'Misplaced concerns'
 

In fact, the data comes some backlash from commentators including Australia's official Productivity Commission, which reviews government policy, over the country's enhanced scrutiny of foreign ownership of land, and which recommended a lower threshold of $190m before land purchases by foreigners require government approval.
 

 "The Australian government has stated publicly that it welcomes foreign investment because of the important and beneficial role it plays in the Australian economy," the commission said in a report.
 

"However, it recently made changes to Australia's foreign investment framework that impose additional costs on foreign investors, create uncertainty, and could discourage investment in the agricultural sector."
 

Some concerns, "including fears that foreign investment will reduce Australia's food security, or result in a 'land grab' and loss of sovereign control over prime agricultural land, appear misplaced".
 

Such ideas "may have arisen in part because of a lack of information and informed debate about foreign investment in Australian agriculture".
 

Mr Joyce, a supporter of the register, said on Wednesday that annual reports drawn from it "will give us more accurate data on which to base public discussion".
 

Big on beef
 

The register also reveals that livestock farms are particularly popular among overseas owners - comprising nearly 46,000 hectares - 30 times as much land as held in cropping farms.
 

Indeed, at 1.41m hectares, foreigners own nearly as much forestry as arable land.
 

The focus livestock tallies with particularly large ownership in ranching states of Queensland, where foreigners hold 13.0% of agricultural land, and Northern Territory, where the proportion is 30%.