Foreign investors buy up Australia’s beef, dairy, grains, cotton and sugar supply chain

Australia’s agriculture industry needs investment, and foreign companies have stumped up the cash. The Weekly Times reveals how much of our food supply is owned by overseas interests.

An investigation by The Weekly Times reveals just how much of Australia’s food supply chain is controlled by foreign companies.

In a five-part series, we lay bare how many milk processors, grains ports, sugar mills, cotton gins and abattoirs are owned by overseas investors, and explain the risks and benefits of foreign involvement in our food supply.

JBS Meatworks and abattoir at Dinmore.

BEEF

International companies are leading a global stampede for Australia’s beef processing assets, with three of our five biggest red-meat processors and seven of the 10 largest cattle feedlots backed by foreign investors.

John McKillop, the independent chairman of the Red Meat Advisory Council, said while most Australians preferred the nation’s farms and agriculture supply chain were locally owned it is simply “not the reality of where the capital comes from”.

PART 1: WHO OWNS AUSTRALIA’S BEEF SUPPLY CHAIN

Fonterra dairy.

DAIRY

Australia’s five biggest dairy processors all owned by offshore interests, with overseas investment ramping up over the past two decades.

PART 2: WHO OWNS AUSTRALIA’S DAIRY PROCESSORS

Wheat harvest.

GRAINS

About three quarters of Australia’s 25 grain export port terminals are owned at least in part by foreign interests.

Victorian farmer and GrainGrowers Limited president Brett Hosking said foreign investment in the grains industry was generally welcomed, but safeguards against monopoly or duopoly behaviour was needed. “So far we have been able to avoid that in the grains industry but it is something we are conscious and aware of – particularly when you see mergers (between offshore companies) that are out of our control,” he said.

PART 3: WHO OWNS AUSTRALIA’S GRAIN PORTS

Cotton harvest in the Far North. Picture: supplied.

COTTON

North American, European and Asia companies are leading the billion-dollar charge for Australian cotton supply-chain assets. Our investigation shows that more than 17 Australian cotton gins are controlled by direct foreign interests with a further eight backed by companies containing offshore capital.

PART 4: WHO OWNS AUSTRALIA’S COTTON GINS

Bundaberg sugar cane.

SUGAR

Sugar mills have slowly slipped out of Australian hands over the past 30 years, and today all but six of Australia’s 24 raw sugar mills are owned directly by overseas companies.

That represents nearly 90 per cent of the industry, and is in sharp contrast to three decades ago, when grower co-operatives owned the majority of mills.

Queensland farmer and Canegrowers Queensland chairman Paul Schembri said in a “perfect world” investment would come from Australian backers, but the capital injection from foreign companies was unavoidable.

PART 5: WHO OWN’S AUSTRALIA’S SUGAR MILLS

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