Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

German buy up of Southland dairy farms continues

Updated at 7:51 am on 1 December 2011

German investment in Southland dairy farming is continuing to grow.

The Overseas Investment Office has approved the application by a German farm investment partnership to buy a sheep and beef farm in eastern Southland to convert to dairying.

The partnership was granted OIO consent to buy a 227 hectare dairy farm at Kaiwera earlier this year. The latest approval is for the neighbouring farm.

The two farms will be combined into a larger dairy operation and run-off.

The German partnership that's bought the land includes an investment group, Aquila AgrarINVEST, which has been involved in a string of other farm purchases in Southland for dairy expansion.

They are managed by the New Zealand dairy investment and management company, MyFarm, which will also oversee the development and management of the latest acquisition.

So far this year, the overseas Investment Office has allowed the sale of almost 120,000 hectares of land to overseas interests, compared with 104,000 hectares for the same period last year.

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