Livestock

Obvious Ventures, the VC firm set up by Twitter founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone, is understood to be the investor.

Farmer shareholders overwhelmingly approved the sale of half the company to the subsidiary of Chinese state-owned Bright Food in return for a NZ$261m capital injection.

UBS and Bill Gates are among the backers in the Series D round for the start-up which is making meat and cheese from plant-based proteins.

The annual meat production of Brazil and Argentina, and 15m hectares of farmland, are needed to cater for increased Chinese demand for meat over the next decade.

The Chinese oil producer is teaming up with British Virgin Islands registered Genius Link Capital to submit a second-round bid for Australia's largest private estate on October 27, it told the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Key fundamentals for a strong Australian beef sector including strong international demand, constrained global supply, a depreciating dollar and trade agreements are falling into place.

Stafford Capital Partners will invest in dairy, beef and row crops, and is splitting its commitments between primaries, secondaries and co-investments.

Australia’s cattle prices set a record high of 568 cents a kilogram on Monday as Australia’s largest privately-owned cattle business said that Australian cattle remains “cheap” and 6 dollars a kilo is achievable.

The huge reduction in China's hog herd over the last 18 months puts the European Union, the US and Canada in the frame for the predicted increase in imports.

Development of sales channels, rather than the size of the investment, is the key factor for making a positive investment return in the Chinese beef market, the report says.