Thread: Chinese Buying Our Farms

I'm not surprised...After several milk scandals, many Chinese residents are buying imported milk/ dairy. They don't trust their dairy manufacturers any more. My friend told me that the milk in China can last 6 months...

IMO this is a bad JOKE that the cowardly Australian government (both sides) have been doing for years... selling our souls on many levels.

Can you imagine trying to by a farm in china? there would be so many conditions, all profiting china, it wouldnt be funny. And I say good on them for protecting themselves in every aspect of business...

Shame the Aus Gov think us a poor little inadeqaute country that needs everyones help no matter the cost...

kinda of reminds you of the whole indiginous problem doest it....

1 politician shuts down the northern live cattle trade, farmers have no income so banks want their money, no Aussies will buy it because of **** weak politicians who are to interested in keeping the majority of public opinion on their side, so they get sold to foreign investors.

To be honest we got no one but ourselves to blame. IMHO of course.

Cheers Ean

Come to a land auction for new housing in Canberra, 90% of the buyers are Chinese! Probably they are buys in farms to feed themselves, but the chances are the food will stay in Australia! One thing is for sure, they can buy all the land they like, but they can't take it away! Better they buy it than invade and take it!

Same thing is happening in Africa and the Chinese are buying up a lot of the arable land. They are smart and know that arable land will be more scarce in years to come.
Agricultural development and

I have a slightly different view.
In Australia there are very few areas of farming that give a decent rate of return to a family , let alone a corporate entity that relies on employed managers.
These are mainly Cotton and Beef.

Most other areas such as wheat, dairying, horticulture rely on families really working for peanuts who are asset rich and income poor.

In my experience many if not most Chinese buys of agriculural land are way above market ( they are skinned) and they never make a profit.

Now this can go on for a long time but eventually there has to be a reckoning. The parent in China eventually decides they cannot take the losses any longer or maybe Beijing steps in and cleans up the corruption.

The Chinese find it hard to understnd a country where there are no agricultural subsidies and underestimate the effort necessary for success.

I can recall when I spoke to 300 visiting Chinese agricultural groups ten years ago, that they were at the point of setting up coops in China from the State run enterprises. Australia did this 100 years ago, and now they are nearly all disbanded as management is always a problem in a competitive unregulated market.
In this case it instructive to see how Clive Palmer skinned them. There are lots of Clive Palmers out there.

Regards Philip A

Big problem is that Australian consumers aren't prepared to pay and for some reason it seems the farmer always gets squeezed.

Look at what the farmer gets per litre of milk or kilo of beef. Labour costs have rocketed up as well as machinery, fertilisers etc.

I don't like the fact the Chinese (as well as American superannuation companies here in WA) are buying up our land but you can't blame people selling out to them.

Originally Posted by EastFreo

Big problem is that Australian consumers aren't prepared to pay and for some reason it seems the farmer always gets squeezed.

Look at what the farmer gets per litre of milk or kilo of beef. Labour costs have rocketed up as well as machinery, fertilisers etc.

I don't like the fact the Chinese (as well as American superannuation companies here in WA) are buying up our land but you can't blame people selling out to them.

Not so much the consumer is not prepared to pay, but the big two are not prrpared to pay as the are profit driven. Say Dairy Farmers are paid 18c per litre for milk, processed and then on sold to Coles/Woolies who sell it for $1 a litre. Profit has to be made by farmer, processor, wholesaler and retailer. Too Many middle men making their share. What consumers see is a huge mark up by the retailer which sometimes is true but not always.