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An aerial view of one of the Crafar farms - Source: ONE News -
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The receivers have agreed to a further extension to the unconditional date for the sale of the Crafar farms to February 7.
The extension is to allow Shanghai Pengxin to finalise its Overseas Investment Office consent conditions.
The initial deadline set by the receivers for the sale to go unconditional was January 31.
Government ministers approved the sale to Chinese investors Shanghai Pengxin last Friday.
The 16 farms represent almost 8000 hectares of land across the North Island.
A consortium of investors, led by Sir Michael Fay, is taking legal action over the decision to approve the Pengxin Group's bid to buy the farms.
The High Court will hear a bid for a judicial review into the decision and the hearing is set down for tomorrow in Wellington.
The Government claims it was forced to approve the farm sale to Chinese interests because of a free trade deal struck by Labour.
But Labour's David Parker says both Prime Minister John Key and Williamson have made the claim but the relevant clause in the free trade deal does not change New Zealand's ability to turn down applications for land purchases.
Since December 2009, 150 dairy farms have been sold nationwide
with most likely to have been sold to Kiwis, he said. In the
three-months to December 2011, 16 dairy farms were sold in Waikato
and the Bay of Plenty alone.
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