22 10월, 20:12www.stuff.co.nz
New Zealand farmers hold strongly divergent views on whether foreign investors should be able to buy into farmland in this country, Federated Farmers says.
The comments come after Chinese conglomerate Shanghai Pengxin Group last week signalled a takeover offer of $85.7m or $2.10 a share for Synlait Farms in conjunction with two of the existing shareholders John Penno and Juliet Maclean.
Some farmers, particularly those that want to buy farms, are opposed to foreign ownership which can drive up prices, while those that want to sell land are in favour of those from overseas being able to buy.
Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills said the farmer representative group would be watching developments very closely as the Shanghai Pengxin Group-backed Standard Farm made the offer to shareholders.
Like the New Zealand public, farmers had different views on ownership.
"[Some] people like to have the ability to sell to whoever they wish to sell to. Like with houses in Auckland if suddenly you start restricting who people can sell to it does affect the market.
"So I have people on that side. I also have people on the other side saying I have family who wish to go farming and life's a bit difficult if my son's got to compete with the Chinese."
Wills said he had sympathies with both views, and because of the "dilemma and contention" Federated Farmers had chosen not to support one side against the other. Rather it wanted strict rules around investment.
He noted the requirement under the Crafar deal that some New Zealand expertise be retained to help run the properties, and that the new owners managed the land at least as well as the previous owners.
"We now have one of the tougher requirements in the OECD around overseas interests purchasing our pastoral land," he said.
Federated Farmers was against the prospect of vertical ownership of both land and plant for processing of dairy milk by one foreign entity.
On the face of it the purchase of 4000 hectares by the Shanghai Pengxin-backed group for $85.7m appears cheaper than the purchase, also by Shanghai Pengxin, of 8000 hectares of North Island Crafar farm land for more than $200m. The Crafar purchase equates to more than $25,000 a hectare.
However, Synlait Farms chairman Barry Brook said the signalled purchase of the Synlait company also included equity and $126m of debt.
When adding in debt the price per hectare for Synlait Farms jumps to nearly $53,000 a hectare, although dairy cows and assets such as irrigation were in the price.
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