China's appetite for foreign agricultural land keeps growing

Beijing

A CHINESE tycoon's purchase of vast wheat fields in France highlights China's increasing acquisition of foreign farmland as the Asian giant seeks to keep up with its massive population's growing appetite.

With 1.4 billion mouths to feed - one-fifth of the world's population - but less than 10 per cent of the planet's arable land, China has looked abroad to fill its food needs.