Farmers may be reluctant to sell

Southern farmers will want to see cash before agreeing to sell their farms to a foreign company again, having been burnt once by a deal that turned sour reports The ODT.  Southland Federated Farmers president and dairy farmer Rod Pemberton said some farmers had previously been burnt when a Maori trust backed by Dubai interests agreed to buy several farms but never paid a deposit. The deal subsequently fell over, but the experience could harden attitudes. "They will want to see some cash on the table before committing themselves," he said. A subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Natural Dairy New Zealand, UBNZ Assets Holdings, has started looking for up to 100 Otago and Southland dairy farms to buy, should the Overseas Investment Office approve its intention to buy the Crafar family's 29 North Island farms which are in receivership. Company spokesman Bill Ralston said should approval be granted, Natural Dairy New Zealand would take its stake in UBNZ from 20% to 100%, buy further farms in both islands and build dairy factories in the central North Island and Southland. A company representative said the factory would be the size of Open Country Dairy's plant near Invercargill, which handles 200 million litres of milk a year supplied from 94 farms. Mr Pemberton said there were few dairy farms for sale in the South, and for Natural Dairy to buy up to 100 would mean paying premium prices.