New Zealand

The most unbelievably naïve reaction to the news that a mysterious Chinese company is hoping to buy up to $1.5 billion worth of dairy farms came from Federated Farmers, which said that this is an “unintended consequence” of the NZ/China Free Trade Agreemen

"The Chinese want a secure food supply, and they're coming into New Zealand to do that, by the look of it," a local farm union official says

The China Jin Hui Mining Corporation - recently renamed Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings - says it has agreed to buy the Crafar family farms as well as other assets including farmland, cattle, and milkpowder production plant.

An ambitious project pooling New Zealand's farming expertise has received a fillip from Emirates Investment Group. Through EIG, there are two large Pakistan projects on the cards, one involving a 35,000ha farm.

Chris Kelly, chief executive of the country's largest corporate farmer, Landcorp, says he knows of other initiatives being explored and believes there will be more foreign investors knocking at New Zealand agriculture's door.

Dubai World said on Friday the company was not involved in the dairy farm purchases "in any way".

The Serious Fraud Office has been brought into the controversy over a Maori trust's move to buy thousands of hectares of prime Southland farmland, after revelations that an alleged fraudster is involved: bankrupt Australian "kaumatua" Shane Wenzel.

Mr Murray, spokesman for the Maori trust buying farms for foreign investors, told the Southland Times website he would buy the whole South Island if he could.

Federated Farmers is urging farmers to conduct due diligence after reports that a Maori trust, with reputed backing from Dubai World, has been contracted to buy 28 farms in Southland

The Maori trust has contracted to buy nearly 30,000ha of dairy, sheep, beef and deer farms throughout Southland, but some sellers have raised queries ranging from delays confirming the sales contracts to deposits not being paid as expected.

New Zealand needs to tighten its rules around overseas investment as China and the Gulf States go on a world-wide shopping spree for prime land, said Green Party Co-Leader Dr Russel Norman.

Agro-Ecological Investment Management, a private equity and real estate asset management company based in London, will launch its first fund in the first quarter of 2010, with a target of between $50m and $60m.