Overseas Investment Office approves Austrian aristocrat's farm purchase for forestry pine tree conversion

An Austrian aristocrat has been given approval to buy another farm in Aotearoa and plant pine trees on it. Photo / NZME

By RNZ

An Austrian aristocrat has been given approval to buy another farm in Aotearoa and plant pine trees in it.

The latest round of Overseas Investment Office (OIO) consents show Johannes Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg has been given the green light to purchase the 445-hectare Te Maire Farm near Masterton.

Just over 300ha of the farm will be planted in pine trees, which will be harvested in 2048, before a second rotation is planted.

Described as an experienced forestry investor by the OIO, Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg purchased three farms in 2019 for conversion to forestry.

In August 2019, for just over $4.2 million, he bought sheep and beef farms Bushgrove and Glentarn Stations in Masterton to convert into commercial pinus radiata operations.

In September 2019, he bought sheep and beef farm Mangaaruhe Station in Wairoa for $7.2m and gained permission from the OIO to turn 706 hectares of the property into a commercial forest.

That same month he purchased Karaka Station, a 373ha sheep and beef grazing property for $3.5m - 290ha of which was to be planted in commercial forest.

These sales were all approved under the Special Forestry Test - which the Government recently announced it plans to make changes to.

In February, the OIO also approved Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg to buy 477ha of land in Taranaki which is already an established forestry operation.