FACTBOX-Who owns Australia's farms?

(Repats factbox published late Friday; no changes to text)

Aug 31 (Reuters) - The Australian government approved a Chinese company's bid for giant outback cotton property on Friday, igniting new concerns about foreign investment rules for Australian agriculture.

How much of Australia's farmlands and farm industries are foreign owned?

* Foreign investors own or part own 11.3 percent of Australian farmland.

* They also own or part own just over 1.0 percent Australian agricultural businesses and 8.5 percent of its agricultural water entitlements.

* Three foreign groups control around 60 percent of Australia's raw sugar milling industry. They are Sucrogen, owned by the Singapore-Malayia Wilmar International, Bundaberg, owned by Finasucre, Belgium, and Tully which is part of Top Glory-COFCO, China.

* More than half of Australia's dairy production is from foreign-owned companies. New Zealnd's Fonterra, 45 percent, Japan's Kirin, Japan, and French-controlled and Italy-based Parmalat.

* Around 40 percent of Australia's red meat production comes from foreign companies. (JBS, Brazil, 25 percent, Cargill, U.S., 8 percent, Nippon Meat Packers, Japan, 6 percent.)

* The top countries for foreign investment approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board in agriculture, fisheries and forestry in the year to June 30, 2011 were Britain (A${esc.dollar}189 million), Switzerland (A${esc.dollar}150 million), Canada (A${esc.dollar}104 million), United States (A${esc.dollar}38 million), Hong Kong (${esc.dollar}13 million) and China (${esc.dollar}4 million).

Sources: Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), Foreign Investment in Australian Agriculture, November 2011. Foreign Investment Review Board annual report, 2010-11)

(${esc.dollar}1 = 0.9699 Australian dollars) (Reporting by James Grubel, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)