New Zealand

The chairman of New Zealand's largest dairy company has issued a warning over foreign ownership of Kiwi land.

New Zealanders could not afford to be "totally xenophobic" towards Chinese investment because it has brought jobs and capital into the country, Prime Minister John Key said Monday.

NZS may not have successfully introduced our farming practices to Uruguay but it managed to introduce New Zealanders' strategy of acquiring highly leveraged farm land with the intention of making a large, non-taxable capital profit on disposal.

Last week, bids closed for an 83% stake in Fonterra's biggest supplier, Dairy Holdings, which oversees 72 South Island farms. Bidders reportedly include Chinese dairy giant Bright Dairy, a pastoral fund owned by Australian investment bank Macquarie Group, British private equity firm Terra Firma. US private equity firm Carlyle Group and the Harvard Endowment Fund.

China's enormous sovereign wealth fund, the China Investment Corporation, may have set aside up to 1.5% or about $6 billion of its massive foreign exchange reserves to invest in New Zealand assets, including potentially dairy farms.

More Southland land has been sold to overseas investors in the past year than at any other time during the past six years.

Dairy exporter Fonterra is expanding in South America with plans for a pilot dairy farm in Brazil.

The New Zealand dairy giant has signed a deal to buy an 850 hectare farm in the Brazilian state of Goias.

Agricultural land is once again attracting global investors but the sector is far from risk free.

With commodity prices at record highs, New Zealand must protect its global advantage by keeping New Zealand land for New Zealand citizens, permanent residents and companies, Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today.

La compañía de inversiones de China, Shanghai Pengxin Group, tiene pensado invertir US$ 158 millones en la compra de establecimientos lecheros en Nueva Zelanda (las estancias de Crafar).

Selling the Crafar farms to an overseas consortium cannot possibly be in New Zealand’s economic interests, says Green Party Co-leader.