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Japan buying Aussie bananas farms

Japanese trading house Itchu Corp has bought into the Australian food industry by snapping up farms in Queensland.

The purchases are part of its $US1.7 million agreement to acquire Dole Food Company’s Asian produce and global packaged food operations.

The deal is set to make Itochu a key player in the local $450m banana industry and a supplier to Coles and Woolworths.

Under the deal, Itochu will have exclusive rights to the Dole trademark on packaged and fresh food in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Dole is believed to own five banana farms and a packaging operation in Far North Queensland and has ripening and distribution operations in NZ.

The move comes just days after the chief executive of Ausbuy, Lynne Wilkinson, called for a stop on the sale of Australian farmland to foreign investors.

"It is extraordinary that in the coming week submissions for the National Food Plan are due and yet we are allowing the sale of key strategic assets regardless," she told the forum.

"What is the rush?"

"The mantra is we need foreign investment," she said.

"But at what cost to our future and our farmers, our skills and the food security of our cities and our food processors."

Wilkinson is not alone in her calls for a moratorium on the sell-off of Australian farmland.

As Food Magazine reported in June, 81 per cent of Australians are against foreign investment in prime agricultural land, one of the strongest results recorded on any question the poll has asked ever asked.

The annual 2012 Lowy Institute poll also found that 56 per cent of people believed the government was allowing too much foreign investment, while 54 per cent said food production should stay local.

Back in April The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) called for a compulsory national land register, to keep track of foreign interest in Australian agricultural land.

The NFF also wants the records to be made public.

“We are also calling for an annual report of the register findings to be published, summarising any changes to the holdings of agricultural land held by foreign interests,” president Jock Laurie said at the time.

Itochu, Japan's third largest trading house, is aiming to boost sales from food to sure up its business against the volatility in iron ore, coal and oil

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