The amount of Australian farm land owned by Chinese interests has surged tenfold in the past year, climbing above 14 million hectares or 2.5 per cent of all agricultural land.

The findings from the Australian Tax Office's Agricultural Land Register, released this week, show the UK and China are the largest owners of foreign-held land in Australia, owning 27 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.

Foreigners now own up to a quarter of all agricultural land in the Northern Territory and Tasmania, and 14 per cent of all farms across the country.

In NSW and Victoria, foreign interests own more than 3 million hectares. In Queensland it is six times that, with more than 17 million hectares in the state now owned by other countries through cattle stations, crops and abattoirs.