Chinese dairy company sells two Gippsland farms
A pair of Gippsland farms, spanning 240 hectares in total, have returned to Australian ownership, after they were sold by a Chinese company for millions.
Two Gippsland dairy farms at the centre of controversy 10 years ago have returned to Australian ownership after they were sold by a Chinese dairy company in an off-market deal with a Melbourne-based property developer.
Australian Yoyou Dairy Pty Ltd, the Australian subsidiary of the Ningbo Dairy Group Co. Ltd, have sold a pair of adjacent dairy farms at Kernot in South Gippsland, offloading them for more than $7 million last year.
Victorian property records show Australian Yoyou Dairy Pty Ltd sold its 242-hectare Kernot dairy farms for $7.164 million, or the equivalent of about $29,600 a hectare.
The records show ACF Super Pty Limited, a holding company for 76-year-old Andrew Facey, has acquired the two properties, which are located at Loch-Kernot Rd.
Mr Facey is the founder and owner of Parklea Developments, a Officer-headquartered property development company, regarded as the largest broadacre land owner in the Cardinia Shire of Melbourne’s sprawling southeastern suburbs.
According to Parklea’s website, Mr Facey owns several farms throughout West Gippsland as well as historic Nagambie property, Box Grove, which fronts the Goulburn River.
“In a typical year, Andrew’s farms turnover around 1200 cattle, 4000 sheep as well as tonnes of wheat, barley and lucerne,” the Parklea website reads.
The sale of the Kernot farms ends Ningbo Dairy Group’s chequered history with the pair of properties, dating back to when they bought them from David and Marie Trigg in late 2012, walk-in walk-out, including 520 milking cows.
In China the Ningbo Dairy ran about 20,000 dairy cows on 30 farms in the Zhejiang province south of Shanghai, expanding into South Gippsland after purchasing the Kernot farms, plus a further three dairies at Tenby Point, near Corinella.
Then in late 2014, Australian Yoyou Dairy applied to the Bass Coast Shire Council with plans to develop a $6 million dairy processing and bottling plant to export more than 10,000 litres of fresh milk to China through Tullamarine Airport.
The plans included doubling its Kernot herd size to about 1000 cows, building a 228 by 47-metre barn to house cattle for some of the time, eight months of the year.
However, the Bass Coast council received a record 430 objections to the proposed development, subsequently rejecting it in August 2015.
The Kernot dairy was bought by Australian Yoyou Dairy with a 60-bale rotary dairy and 30,000-litre vat, but after its development plans were rejected the company sold most of the dairy cows at the farms as it scaled back its production.
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