Chinese billionaire Xianfeng Lu has put one of the country’s biggest dairy operations, the nearly 200-year-old Woolnorth farming aggregation in Tasmania, up for sale after losing a big milk supply contract with dairy giant Fonterra earlier this year.

The businessman paid $280 million in 2016 to acquire the Van Diemen’s Land Company and its dairies at Circular Head on the north-western tip of the island.