Saudi investment firm buys Australian farmland, sheep

Sheep eat the stubble of a failed wheat crop at sunset on a farm near the town of West Wyalong, Australia. (Reuters)

• SALIC CEO Matthew Jansen: It is our first acquisition in Australia as well as our first investment in sheep production
• Saudi Arabia began scaling back its domestic wheat growing program in 2008, planning to rely completely on imports by 2016 to save water

DUBAI: Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC), an arm of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Public Investment Fund, said on Thursday it has made its first acquisition in Australia.

SALIC did not give a figure for the purchase of Baladjie Pty Ltd, an aggregation of over 200,000 hectares (494,200 acres) of farmland in Western Australia’s wheatbelt that also carries 40,000 head of Merino sheep.

“It is our first acquisition in Australia as well as our first investment in sheep production,” Matthew Jansen, SALIC CEO said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia began scaling back its domestic wheat growing program in 2008, planning to rely completely on imports by 2016 to save water.

SALIC’s agricultural investments include farmland, grain silos and terminals, as part of Saudi Arabia’s food security drive.