The Chinese dairy company which wants to buy 16 North Island dairy farms and set up a heat treatment plant to process milk from Fonterra farmers says it is "disappointed" by a high-profile campaign to fight foreign investment.
A "closed door" policy on overseas investment in New Zealand farming "would spell disaster for the economy, reduce export earnings, cost jobs and lead to the pastoral industry stagnating," said Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings Ltd.
Natural Dairy, offered to buy 16 dairy farms formerly owned by Crafar family companies now in receivership, was critical of the Save the Farms group, which has mounted a newspaper advertising campaign to call for an end to farms being sold to foreign investors.
"In the case of Natural Dairy's plans to purchase the 16 Crafar farms, if the Save the Farms proposed 'moratorium' prevented it occurring, New Zealand would miss out on substantial benefits," the company said.
A spokesman said the Natural Dairy project involved only 8615ha of dairy farms out of the nation's farmland total of 1.51 million ha. Sales to foreigners of about 180,000 hectares have been approved over the past five years.
The Natural Dairy projects involved only 25,000 dairy cattle out of a national herd of more than 5.8 million cows, and would create more than 120 new jobs for New Zealanders, while potentially boosting the national export earnings by $120 million a year, once in full production.
The company said it also intended to provide an annual $5m fund for lending to new sharemilkers, and establish a charitable trust aimed at improving training in the dairy sector and encouraging new technology and research.
Save The Farms spokesman, lawyer Tony Bouchier, said foreign buyers were lining up from all countries to buy land.
The group, led and funded by Auckland developer John McKearney, was launched today.
Mr Bouchier said it wanted a national debate on the issue of overseas ownership.
The first step should be a moratorium on the sale of Crafar farms and other sensitive agricultural land to foreign ownership until there had been informed public debate and protections incorporated into a review of the Overseas Investment Act 2005.
"New Zealand must retain ownership of our primary resource, the land and waters of Aotearoa New Zealand," said Mr Bouchier.
NZPA