Overseas investment decision for case 202300306 - Port Blakely Limited

The Applicant is ultimately owned by the Eddy Family of the U.S.A, through the Port Blakely Company.

The land is currently used as a sheep and beef farm with an existing forestry right over 53 hectares of Pinus radiata trees.  It is located adjacent to Port Blakely’s existing 982-hectare Kawhia Forest, enabling the properties to be managed together, using common infrastructure.  

The Applicant intends to establish a commercial production forestry on the Land with a total of 271 hectares (including the present 53 ha forestry block) of Pinus radiata trees.  The harvest of trees will occur during the years 2050 – 2054 with each rotation being around 30 years.  The remainder of the Land includes native bush (170.7 hectares), unproductive land, ponds and buffer areas.

The Land is a combination of:

• LUC Class 6 (373 hectares),
• LUC Class 4 (79 hectares) and
• LUC Class 3 (<1 hectare).  

The main benefits to New Zealand are likely to be increased export receipts, capital expenditure, creation of jobs, reduction in net carbon emissions, and some environmental and public access benefits.  Consent was granted as the Applicant has met the investor test criterion, the benefit to NZ test - sensitive land and the farm land offer test.