14/04/2025
Buy Australia
“A mammoth Canadian pension fund has swooped on a swath of irrigated and dryland cropping farmland in the NSW Riverina, after buying out its co-investors in a massive deal. Australian Food and Fibre, backed by majority investor Canada’s PSP Investments, has acquired total ownership of the 30,000ha Kooba aggregation, located near Griffith.
The Weekly Times understands Australian Food and Fibre, a joint venture between PSP Investments and the Robinson family from northern NSW, has bought out the Kooba aggregation’s owners including Australian investors Chris Corrigan and David Fitzsimons plus PSP Investments, in a deal reportedly worth $500m in total.
The Kooba aggregation, which comprises 30,000ha for cotton, crops and livestock plus about 1400ha for almonds, was previously part of Webster Limited, a formerly ASX-listed agricultural company established by Alexander Webster as a traditional pastoral company in 1831.
The pension fund is regarded as the biggest investor in Australian agriculture with land and water assets nearing $8bn, owning subsidiaries such as cropping giant Altora Ag, Aurora Dairies and organic beef and sheep producers Hewitt.
The transaction has received FIRB approval.”
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Under People First, the Foreign Investment Review Board would be required to block this sale.
It’s outrageous that the biggest investor in Australian agriculture is a foreign pension fund.
Why aren’t our superfunds buying Australian farm land, instead of investing more than a trillion offshore.
It’s just another example of how the establishment puts the people last.
