New | Chinese group to bid for two Australian cattle properties

China’s PengXin Group is bidding for two huge Australian cattle properties which together could cost more than A$1 billion (US$720 million) and would make the conglomerate the biggest owner of farmland in the country, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Shanghai-based PengXin is separately bidding for Consolidated Pastoral Company and S.Kidman & Co, Australia’s biggest landowner, the Australian Financial Review said, citing unnamed sources.

The move underscores the importance of agriculture to China’s government.

Agriculture is the No. 1 policy document released by the Central Committee of China’s Communist Party and the State Council, the government’s cabinet, last February. It has occupied that spot for the last 12 years, with food security pencilled in as Beijing’s leading priority.

PengXin would use Consolidated Pastoral Co’s cattle stations in northern and western Australia to supply beef to Asia, while it would use South Australia’s Kidman & Co to supply meat to the Australian market, the Australian newspaper said.

If its bids are successful, it would acquire a total 555,000 head of cattle, nearly as much as Australia’s biggest beef producer Australian Agricultural Company owns, while its land holdings would be much larger than AACo’s. PengXin became New Zealand’s third largest dairy player through a similar acquisition strategy it began three years ago, the paper said.

China has become a leading agricultural importer of grains, oilseeds and cotton, surpassing Japan, Mexico and Canada to become the leading export market for US agricultural products, a report by the US Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service (ERS) said.