Chinese Dairy Farming in the MacKenzie Basin?

I have posted a comment on the Government’s meddling in the affairs of dairy farming land owners in the MacKenzie Basin.

Now we have a publicly listed Hong Kong company acquiring four farms in the North Island with the promise to invest $1.5 billion to purchase a few more and build a factory!

It was interesting to see that the purchasing company did not purchase the farms subject to Overseas Investment Office consent and Kerry Knight (the company’s solicitor) is confident that a belated application will be successful.  I guess you’ve got to give them credit for having the audacity to do it.

I don’t imagine the Government will see any connection between:

• the Government misusing the Resource Management Act to force New Zealanders who  own land and legitimately want to produce milk and contribute to the economy, to abandon that quest (refer previous post), and
• permitting Asian investors to own farms and processing factories in New Zealand for the purpose of exporting liquid milk directly to China, in direct competition withFonterra.

The Chinese would not let us to do it in China – necessitating the Fonterra joint venture with San Loo.

I suppose the question now has to be asked:

Will the Chinese be allowed to convert the MacKenzie Basin to dairy farms?!

I am a little afraid that the answer might be “yes!”

Your comments are welcomed.