Free-from food manufacturer, Freedom Foods and its largest shareholder, construction company, Perich Group have signed an MOU on a deal worth $500 million with a Chinese agricultural company, New Hope Group.
As part of the deal, New Hope will set up an investment fund in exchange for a long term UHT milk supply, which would include the development of large scale dairy farms, and will market and distribute products into China through New Hope Dairy.
The $500 million fund will be put to the development of agricultural and food processing activities in Australia.
Mining magnate, Gina Rinehart, also recently revealed plans to join forces with a Chinese company, China National Machinery Industry Corporation, in a $500 million joint venture to export infant milk powder from Queensland to China.
The Hope Dairies partnership will also own farmland and build a processing facility in southeast Queensland.
The deals follow hot on the heels of the recently signed China-Australia free-trade agreement which was especially beneficial for the dairy industry.
