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Source: ONE News -
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Federated Farmers says how a farm is run can often be much more important than who may own the farm.
Concerns have recently been raised about the threat of increasing foreign ownership of farms in New Zealand, as well as a New Zealand Farmers Weekly investigation into the sale of two Crafar family farms to Chinese interests.
But the farmers' group says concern is not necessarily warranted about "owners who might happened to come from overseas."
"The thing you have got to remember is that whoever owns the farm, they can't take it away. The farm stays here in New Zealand , the animals stay here in New Zealand, the jobs stay here in New Zealand," says Conor English CEO of Federated Farmers.
"We have had foreign owners over the years, just as we've had corporate owners. What actually matters is how the farms are managed," he says.
"We've got some very good managers in New Zealand and they do a very good job irrespective of who owns it. So we've got to be careful that the attitude (of) people from overseas...is in tune with the New Zealand way of doing things."
English says the rural property market is currently "a bit like a possum in headlights."
"We've sort of got a mini-credit crisis and we've seen the number of sales go from about 700 in the three months to February 2008 to about 200 now."
"The whole market has just frozen up and I think that's driven by the fact that the banks have really tightened up on their criteria... also some of the values that the sellers are wanting are frankly just unrealistic."
But he says the relationship with farmers and banks remains good.
"What we are pleased about is that the banks are lending to farmers for their overdrafts. Because there has been a bit of a cash squeeze right across farming, not just the dairy side of things but also the sheep and beef side of things."
"There is always going to be a proportion of farmers who haven't got the cash that they want. But they've got a tough job, the banks, and we do want them to keep supplying money."
