According to the KPMG report, Overseas Investment in New Zealand Dairy Land, published earlier today, the United States was the largest investor in New Zealand dairy farm land between January 2013 and December 2014.
KPMG examined Foreign Direct Investment (FID) decisions by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) over the two year period.
During that time, 24 dairy land transactions worth NZ$297m (US$202m) were approved by the OIO, including eight from investors the UK, six from Sweden, five from the US, and one from China.
In land terms, the five US investments totaled 15,404 hectares - 55.9% of the freehold hectares sold.
These transactions accounted for NZ$78.9m (US$53.7m) of the NZ$297m paid out - or 26.5%
The single Chinese transaction - the 2014 acquisition of Synlait Farms (now Purata) by Shanghai Pengxin for NZ$63.3m (US$43.1m) from Synlait - accounted, however, for 11.7% (3,305 hectares) of land sold and 21.3% of consideration paid.
"There is a widespread perception that it's a thin market - comprised of Chinese and Hong Kong investors - who are buying New Zealand dairy land," said Justin Ensor, deal advisory partner, KPMG.
"In reality, though, the market has a broad base of investors," he added.
Click here for the KPMG report.