The Australian has reported that Beijing-based Tsing Capital will invest in fermentation and extraction of grains, cane and vegetables in Australia to supply China’s supplements and health foods market. It also intends to buy Australian processing and branded food businesses that can leverage surging demand from Asian buyers.
As a means to support the entire supply chain, Tsing will establish processing factories in the Wimmera region of Victoria. To do so, it expects to raise A$500m-$1bn in capital, with the possibility of increasing that amount to A$2bn through loans.
Charles Hunting, managing partner of Tsing’s food fund, said that creating a fund backed by numerous investors may prove to a suitable way for Chinese interests to play the agriculture boom.
“We’re not creating the food products for the sake of hopefully getting that food into the Chinese market,” Hunting told Weekly Times.
“The plan is to bring strategic Chinese investors who have distribution networks in China so that we can create an end-to-end opportunity that is demand driven, not supply driven.”
Tsing—one of China’s first investment management companies—has put together eight similar funds with investments totalling A$1bn since it was set up in 2000.