Porangahau farm bought by part of IKEA retail group

Stoneridge Farm has been purchased by Dutch company Ingka Investments Forest Assets NZ Limited.

The latest Overseas Investment Office (OIO) report lists approval for six sales of farmland in Southland, Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay, East Coast and Northland.

The sales include Stoneridge Farm, a sheep and beef breeding operation on Old Hill Rd Porangahau, which also has 41ha of existing forest and has been purchased by Dutch company Ingka Investments Forest Assets NZ Ltd.

Ingka Group is one of 12 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA retail under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Ingka Group has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments, and Ingka Centres.

Ingka Investments forestland portfolio operations manager and acting country manager, Ray Raiesmaa, says Ingka Investments will apply principles of responsible and prudent conversion of the Old Hill Road property to a production forest.

"We will be planting production forest. We do not engage in "plant and leave" forestry, we do not sell carbon credits from our forests anywhere in the world and we do not use carbon offsetting to minimise our climate footprint," says Raiesmaa.

"We do manage our forests sustainably for timber production and to make a long-lasting, positive impact on the ecosystem, forest regeneration and on the removal and storage of carbon."

Ingka Investment will engage with the local community through regular discussions, hosting events, joining local associations and hiring locally.

Farmer Jeremy Martin, who owned Stoneridge with wife Caroline and parents Alison and Stuart Martin, says the decision to sell the property was not taken lightly.

"We have owned Stoneridge in its entirety since 2010. We had part of the property from 2006. The whole family was involved in making the decision, which took us about a year of deliberations.

"A lot of factors had to be considered but ultimately it was what was best for the family."

Jeremy Martin says the majority of the farm was only suited for forestry due to its steepness, and had the family retained ownership they would have considered forestry themselves.

"We put the farm on the market last year and within a week we had gone into the country's second lockdown. We had spent close to $20,000 on marketing in farming magazines etc in the hope that Stoneridge would continue to be farmed.

"By the time we came out of lockdown we had a huge amount of interest and a lot of parties came out to view the property.

"It was a tender process and we had multiple offers, several from different forestry groups including Ingka.

"There were also a couple of offers from carbon farming entities. We were adamant that we did not want to sell to carbon farming. I was part of the 50 Shades of Green protest.

"Ingka Group practises sustainable forestry and wants to engage with local iwi and the community. We were very aware of the Porangahau River on our boundary and did not want the river impacted.

"Ingka Group wanted to do all the right things, so we felt Stoneridge would be in safe hands."