Foreign investments in New Zealand’s agricultural sector and their regulation, 2001–2017

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the case of New Zealand within the recent ‘global land rush’. It analyzes data regarding foreign investments in agriculture between 2001 and 2017, traces the development of associated regulations and provides an in-depth account of the workings of the competent bureaucracy, the Overseas Investment Office. It shows how deliberately permissive regulation of foreign investments into land turned New Zealand’s agricultural sector into a popular destination for capital from the Global North in the years following the global financial crisis, especially with the entry of institutional investors. However, the findings also reveal that the general extent and importance of foreign agricultural investments was moderate during the period, most likely because of limited opportunities for investors to find sufficiently large outlets for their funds. Lastly, the attempts to acquire large tracts of farmland frequently sparked popular concern and caused changes in the regulation.