Furniture and consumer appliances retailer Harvey Norman has gone into dairy farming with a $AUD34 million investment in one of Australia's largest dairy farms.
According to news reports, the retailer has acquired a 49.9 per cent stake in northern Victorian-based dairy operator Coomboona Holdings.
While its well known that Harvey Norman's chairman Gerry Harvey owns Australia's largest thoroughbred sales company, Magic Millions, and has interests in beef cattle for some time, this is his first foray into the food industry.
However, Mr. Harvey is not the only Australian billionaire investing in Australia's growing dairy sector in a hope of getting in on the boom in exports of dairy products to Asia,
Last year, mining mogul Gina Rinehart bought up dairy assets and land while also announcing plans to invest $AUD500 million to manufacture baby formula for Chinese consumers.