Carter unaware Crafar deal had been struck

David Carter. Photo / Christine Cornege

Agriculture Minister David Carter's remarks about a Chinese dairy farm investment were an "outrageous abuse" of the overseas investment process, a spokesperson for the Chinese company said.

David Carter told a National Party conference at the weekend that a sale of the farms was unlikely to go through, prompting a telling off from Prime Minister John Key.

The PM said yesterday he had told Carter not to continue making such remarks.

However Carter today said he was unaware contracts had been signed when he made the comments.

Chinese dairy investor Natural Dairy has a conditional sale agreement in place to buy 16 farms previously owned by the Crafar family, which range in size from 128ha to 1750ha.

Vice-chairman of Natural Dairy NZ, Graeme Chin said Carter's comments were nothing more than a "blatant attempt to subvert what should be an independent process".

"As the company already has a conditional sale agreement on the Crafar farms, this can only mean Mr Carter has some knowledge that the OIO will not issue an approval or that the government will subsequently move to block the sale," Chin said.

"Natural Dairy spent months of its time and considerable amounts of money to meet the requirements of the OIO and now we find the Minister of Agriculture seems to have pre-determined the entire approvals process," he said.

However Carter told reporters today when he made the remark he did not realise that the conditional contract had been signed.

``At the time I made the remarks I was unaware of the contract being signed but now they deserve the process and I won't be commenting further.'

Once the OIO made its recommendation Commerce Minister Simon Power and Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson would then make a decision.

The farms Sixteen North Island farms owned by the Crafar family have been in receivership since October.

The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) assesses applications from overseas investors who want to buy sensitive New Zealand assets. It then makes recommendations to the Government about whether it thinks the sale should go ahead. The Government has the final say.

The PM said he did not think the minister had prejudiced the case and no legal advice had been sought.

- NZPA and Herald Online