The Van Trump Report

Foreign Ownership of U.S. Farmland Jumps More Than +1.5 Million Acres

The amount of U.S. land owned by foreign entities climbed by +1.58 million acres between 2022 and 2023, or an increase of +3.6%, based on data collected by USDA under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978. An American Farm Bureau analysis of the latest data shows foreign investors owned 45.85 million acres of U.S. agricultural land as of 2023, representing 3.61% of total privately held farmland in the U.S.  

While there has been much attention on China buying up U.S. land, ownership by Chinese entities actually declined by -11% to 277,336 acres in 2023 from 311,608 acres in 2022. The largest share of foreign owners – and by a wide margin – actually belongs to Canada, which hold 15.35 million acres, accounting for 33.5% of foreign-held U.S. agricultural land. Canada is distantly followed by the Netherlands (5.2 million acres), Italy (2.7 million), the UK (2.6 million), and Germany (2.5 million).

AFBF points out that since 2010, reported foreign-held agricultural land in the U.S. has grown by +21 million acres — an +85% increase — averaging an annual gain of +1.62 million acres. AFBF says the expansion is equivalent to an area larger than the entire state of South Carolina.

The majority (48% or 21.9 million acres) of foreign-owned agricultural land is forestland, while 29% is cropland (13.2 million acres), 17% (7.7 million) is pastureland, and 6% (2.9) is “other” agricultural land and non-ag land. AFBF highlights that in the most recent five-year period (2018 to 2023), the biggest surge in foreign investment has been in cropland (+101%) versus just 28% and 15% for forestland and pastureland, respectively.

The increased interest in U.S. cropland is likely tied to renewable energy production, says AFBF. It notes that under AFIDA, foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land include long-term leases of 10 years or more, a provision that is particularly popular with energy companies. USDA’s foreign ownership data does not specify exact land uses but AFBF singled out names of reporting entities that contained words associated with the sector. 11.21 million acres (84%) were linked to entities containing the term “wind”; 4.8 million acres (36%) to entities with “energy”; 1.47 million acres (11%) to those with “solar”; and 404,000 acres (3%) to entities with “renewable.” Based on this criteria, AFBF estimates that again, Canadian investors account for the largest share of U.S. acreage tied to renewable energy at 5.5 million acres.

Texas, our second largest state, tops the list of states with the most foreign-owned ag land with 5.7 million acres, or 3.6%. Maine has the second largest amount of foreign owned ag acreage at 3.5 million. However, this accounts for over 21% of Maine’s private farmland, the largest share of any state. In both states, a majority of foreign owned land is forestland. Between 2022 and 2023, New Mexico saw the biggest increase agricultural land purchases with +358,149 acres gobbled up by foreign investors, followed by Texas with +223,165 acres. The big jump in both states is believed to be tied to wind energy projects.  The full AFBF report is available HERE.

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