First Nidera, now Noble. China seems to have started an agribusiness push in the middle of the alphabet. That would mean the ABCD groups – Archer, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus – are safe. But yesterday’s joint venture deal between Noble and China’s Cofco suggests the NOW crew – Olam and Wilmar as well as Noble – could be in China’s sights.

Cofco (China National Cereals, Oil and Foodstuffs Corp) will pay $1.5bn for a 51 per cent stake in Noble’s sugar, soyabean, and wheat operation, Noble Agri. This is not China’s first overseas food foray, but it is the second this year by Cofco. In February, Cofco bought 51 per cent of Dutch trader Nidera. The tie-up is also the second-biggest outbound China food deal after Shuanghui’s $7.1bn 2013 purchase of Smithfield Foods, the pork producer, and ahead of Bright Food buying Weetabix for $1.2bn. Deal flow is building. China accounted for a sixth of agribusiness, food and beverage deals last year, says Dealogic, having never accounted for more than 2 per cent in the previous half decade.

What might be next in the succession of deals? China is acutely in need of dairy. It has been repairing its own dairy capabilities following the 2008 melamine scandal. A Cofco unit now owns a quarter of China Mengniu Dairy, the country’s largest processor. Last year, Mengniu bought a 28 per cent stake in China Modern Dairy, the biggest producer. And so on. But China has limited arable land and is battling to improve yields and rebuild trust in home brands, as the search for baby formula overseas shows. China was notable by its absence from this year’s three-way fight for Warrnambool Cheese & Butter of Australia (Canada’s Saputo won). The deal was all about profiting from growth in Chinese dairy demand. But if Noble and Nidera are anything to go by, Chinese companies are probably out hunting for milk suppliers right now.