Mainland investors own just 0.38% of Aussie farmland

Chinese investors hold just 0.38 percent of Australia's agricultural land, said Scott Morrison, Australia's treasurer, on Wednesday, citing a report which he said should allay concern among Australian voters that the Asian nation is buying up farmland on a massive scale.

A total of 13.6 percent of agricultural land is held by international investors, with 52 percent of that owned by UK investors, Morrison said, citing the first report from the Agricultural Land Register. The US is the next biggest holder, followed by the Netherlands and Singapore with China fifth.

"China is still well down the list" of foreign investors, Morrison said in a Sky News television interview on Wednesday. The information in the report "informs the quality of decision-making (in the Australian government), it informs the quality of policy-making and it informs, hopefully, the quality of the debate," he said.