Chinese buy more WA grain farmland

Jonathan ChancellorDecember 1, 2012

The Heilongjiang Feng Agricultural Group has completed the $29 million purchase of 23,000 hectares of land in Western Australia.

It was previously owned by Dennis Joyce's family companies.

The land includes several properties in the Great Southern, including around Newdegate and Lake King.

The arm of the state-owned conglomerate reportedly wants to buy and lease more than 100,000 hectares to grow grain for export to China.

The company acquired a $23.2 million holding last year in a move seen as creating a supply chain that will operate independently of WA grain handler CBH.

The 6,500-hectare farm near Ingerup was sold by farmer David Webster.

Heilongjiang Feng Agricultural is an arm of Beidahuang Group.

Earlier this month, Chinese conglomerate Shanghai Zhongfu secured a $700 million deal to lease more than 13,000 hectares of farm land in the Kimberley region for 50 years for sugar production.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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