Crafar properties could go for $200m

Allan Crafar. Photo / Christine Cornege

The Crafar dairy farms, once New Zealand's biggest private dairy operation, could be worth more than $200 million, based on current market trends.

The estimate was calculated on sales of dairy farms and grazing land in the Central North Island from June 2009 to last month.

The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand figures show the average price per hectare of dairy land to be about $30,000, while the average price per hectare of grazing land was about $10,000 - $15,000.

Based on those figures Allan Crafar's dairy operation could be worth $210 - $215 million dollars, enough to clear the debt owed to the banks.

The Crafar family owes more than $200 million to PGG Wrightson, Westpac and RaboBank after its central North Island farms went into receivership in October last year.

The receivers have placed 16 farms on the market with Bayleys.

The farms total about 8000 hectares, support almost 17,000 dairy cows and employ nearly 200 staff and managers.

Bayleys Real Estate national country manager Richard Graham said the company had fielded hundreds of calls from buyers interested in snapping up the land.

While a few of the calls had come from overseas, the majority of the interest was from New Zealand, he said.

It was difficult to say how the farms would be sold, because it was such a large portfolio, he said.

There was a possibility that the "average farmer" might want to buy one or two farms in the portfolio, or a large corporate would be interested in a much larger chunk of the land, he said.

Graham said the company had not dealt directly with Natural Dairy, who earlier said they wanted to buy the farms.

However Bayleys was in constant contact with the receivers, and had discussed with them a potential purchase of the land by Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings, Graham said.

The buyout by Hong Kong stock exchange listed Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings rests on it raising $1.5 billion and meeting Overseas Investment Office approval.

The portfolio is being sold via a tender process, which will close on June 23.

However it was possible some or all of the farms could be sold before then, Graham said.

Meanwhile in comments sent to nzherald.co.nz's Your Views, Robert Crafar's partner Layla Robertson said: "Allan is too busy to be bothering about naysayers like you guys hahaha! You don't really think he pays any attention to internet threads do you?"

Worfie, in a comment posted on the nzherald.co.nz discussion thread added he had been to a few of the farms and witnessed first-hand the "total mismanagement by staff who have no previous farming knowledge who were appointed by the Crafars".

"Malnourished cattle, namely calves left to fend for themselves before they have been weaned. Countless bones of dead animals left lying in the tree lines of paddocks, the remnants of trenches where numerous cattle have been bulldozed into a buried. Milking pits with no roofs or shelter, paddocks with no gates (not even a Taranaki style)," the comment said.

"Fortunately for the sake of the rest of the countries good blokes and the welfare of the surviving cattle you went bust. Do yourself a favour and go gracefully, rather than drag this on any further. As they say - it all comes out in the wash."