ARABLE land prices in England have rocketed by 40pc over the last year as buyers outnumber sellers by 30 to one.

Christopher Orme, consultant at Strutt & Parker's Harrogate office, says good quality arable land is routinely fetching more than £6,500 an acre and up to £10,000 in some quality cases.

He puts the lack of farms for sale down to increased confidence among arable farmers caused by big rises in commodity prices during 2007.

Arable farmers looking to expand and buy more land, are having to compete with European and Irish buyers and investment buyers.

"The former view land as being good value, while the latter are looking to take advantage of the inheritance tax reliefs afforded by ownership of agricultural land," said Mr Orme.

"It is this competition for farms that has resulted in the large premiums seen in the first quarter of 2008.

On top of this, wheat prices have risen as high as £200 per tonne, up 360pc since 2002."

He said there were two main reasons for the rise in commodity prices.

The first is America's ethanol subsidies. This year bio-fuels will make up 30pc of America's maize harvest.

The extra maize used for ethanol amounts to approximately 50pc of the fall in the world's overall grain stock.

Secondly, the growing wealth of China and India is increasing demand for meat, which in turn boosts demand for the cereals to feed the livestock.

The International Food Policy Research Institute believes cereal prices will continue to rise by between ten and 20pc by 2015.

Mr Orme said: "The demand for agricultural land is the strongest I have experienced and now is undoubtedly a great time to sell."

However he sounded a note of caution.

"While I do not anticipate land values falling, I remember well how farms halved in value in 12 months from 1990 to 1991," he said.