Overseas investment decision for case 202300002 - Kauri Forestry LP

Special forestry (One-off purchase)
This transaction was entered into before 16 August 2022 and so the old special forestry test applies. See here for more information: Getting to the root of farm to forestry conversions

National interest assessment

The Applicant is a New Zealand limited partnership, established as part of the Craigmore Sustainables Group. It is a forestry-specific investment vehicle and already holds a significant amount of land in New Zealand for forestry investment purposes. The investment will be managed by the New Zealand based management team.

The land is currently used for beef farming. The Applicant will convert approximately 420 hectares of the land into a commercial plantation forest (predominantly Pinus Radiata) during the 2024 and 2025 planting seasons. 

The Applicant intends to harvest the crop of trees once matured and replant following harvest. 
The remaining land will be made up of approximately 152 hectares of native bush and scrub and 60 hectares of unplantable land, infrastructure and buffer land which will include riparian and boundary setbacks.

The Land Use Class (LUC) details for the Land are: LUC Class 4 (approx. 328 ha.), LUC Class 6 (approx. 255 ha.), and LUC Class 7 (approx. 78ha.). The LUC information relates to a larger area of land than what the Applicant will acquire due to the subdivision of the land that will occur prior to the Applicant’s acquisition.

Consent was granted as the Applicant has met the investor test criterion and the special forestry test criteria.