| Foreign Ownership of U. S.
Farmland
Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land. (1980) (AER447) Foreign ownership of U. S. agricultural land remained relatively steady from 1981 through 1995 -- slightly above or below 1 percent of the privately owned agricultural land in the United States. At the end of 1995, foreign persons owned 15.1 million acres -- slightly more than 1 percent of the 1.3 billion acres of privately owned U. S. agricultural land (farm and forest land). Forest land accounts for 49 percent of all foreign-owned acreage, cropland for 16 percent, pasture and other agricultural land for 32 percent, and nonagricultural land for 3 percent. Corporations own 72 percent of the foreign-held acreage, partnerships own 20 percent, and individuals own 6 percent. The remaining 2 percent is held by estates, trusts, institutions, associations, and others. About 56 percent of the reported foreign holdings involve land actually owned by U. S. corporations. The law requires them to register their land holdings as foreign if as little as 10 percent of their stock is held by foreign investors. The remaining 44 percent of the foreign-held land is owned by investors not affiliated with U. S. firms. A total of 63 percent of foreign-held acreage is owned by investors (including individuals, corporations, partnerships, etc.) from Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands Antilles, and the British Virgin Islands (in descending rank order). Japanese investors own only 3 percent of foreign-owned acreage. Maine is the State with the largest number of acres (2,968,434) owned by foreign persons. Foreign holdings in Maine account for 16 percent of that States’s privately owned agricultural land and 20 percent of all the reported foreign-owned agricultural land nationwide. Four companies own 91 percent of the foreign-held acres in Maine, almost all in forest land. Two of these companies are Canadian, one is French, and the fourth is a U. S. corporation that is partially Canadian owned. Outside of Maine, foreign holdings are concentrated in the West and South, containing 34 and 32 percent, respectively, of all reported foreign holdings of U. S. agricultural land. These findings are based on reports submitted to USDA under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978. Country Number of Acres Argentina 12,578 Australia 6,106 Austria 29,336 Bahamas 36,325 Bahrain 313 Belgium 65,586 Belize 549 Bermuda 73,835 Bolivia 11 Brazil 10,336 British Virgin Islands 124,062 Canada 1,571,341 Cayman Islands 39,028 Chile 2,055 China 924 Colombia 11,414 Costa Rica 13,835 Croatia 1,023 Cuba 58 Czech Republic 347 Denmark 12,948 Dominican Republic 2,108 Ecuador 971 Egypt 2,076 El Salvador 128 France 128,663 Gambia 294 Germany 753,530 Greece 60,491 Guatemala 1,102 Guyana 35 Honduras 1,018 Hong Kong 15,061 Hungary 103 India 1,754 Indonesia 1,392 Iran 2,343 Ireland 10,490 Israel 951 Italy 81,477 Ivory Coast 119 Jamaica 567 Japan 199,980 Jordan 1,580 Kampuchea 31 Korea (South) 1,570 Kuwait 20,188 Laos 31 Lebanon 12,663 Liberia 30,981 Liechtenstein 133,276 Luxembourg 3,109 Malaysia 7,948 Mexico 179,276 Morocco 1,035 Namibia 197 Netherlands 112,104 Netherlands Antilles 355,382 New Zealand 14,011 Nicaragua 1,378 Norway 4,913 Oman 454 Pakistan 982 Panama 121,629 Peru 308 Philippines 3,816 Poland 147 Portugal 4,146 Russia 771 St. Vincent 2,637 Saudi Arabia 31,956 Senegal 10 Singapore 504 Somalia 11 South Africa 2,673 Spain 4,883 Sweden 54,880 Switzerland 286,005 Syria 2,689 Taiwan 7,899 Tanzania 10,143 Thailand 1,835 Trinidad & Tobago 94 Turkey 38 Turks Island 3,292 United Arab Emirates 4,149 United Kingdom 1,798,722 Uruguay 10,807 Venezuela 22,339 Vietnam 152 Zimbabwe 230 Multiple 1 54,843 Third tier 2 54,872 Subtotal 3 6,644,252 See footnotes at end of table. Table 2-4. U. S. agricultural landholdings by country of foreign owner, December 31, 1995 Interests excluding U. S. Corporations with foreign shareholders 25 Table 2-4 continued. U. S. agricultural landholdings by country of foreign owner, December 31, 1995 (continued) U. S. Corporations with foreign shareholders 1 A report is processed as "multiple" when no single country predominates -- for example, an equal partnership between a Canadian and a German. 2 A report is processed as "third tier" if three or more levels of ownership are reported with no foreign interests stated. 3 Total interests excluding U. S. corporations with foreign shareholders. 4 Total interest of U. S. corporations with foreign shareholders. Country Number of Acres US/Lebanon 411 US/Andorra 3,741 US/Liberia 24,064 US/Argentina 4,056 US/Libyan Arab Republic 280 US/Australia 5,030 US/Liechtenstein 101,202 US/Austria 26,138 US/Luxembourg 234,551 US/Bahamas 61,500 US/Malaysia 300 US/Barbados 41 US/Malta 500 US/Belgium 88,553 US/Mexico 254,395 US/Bermuda 37,571 US/Netherlands 384,297 US/Brazil 14,396 US/Netherlands Antilles 210,572 US/Brit. Virgin Islands 424,704 US/New Hebrides 883 US/Canada 1,799,034 US/New Zealand 50,455 US/Cayman Islands 52,536 US/Nicaragua 282 US/Chile 9,948 US/Norway 9,709 US/China 13,151 US/Pakistan 423 US/Colombia 11,435 US/Panama 151,088 US/Costa Rica 407 US/Paraguay 236 US/Denmark 8,228 US/Peru 1,696 US/Dominican Republic 589 US/Philippines 7,881 US/Ecuador 1,632 US/Portugal 1,683 US/Egypt 4,264 US/Qatar 219 US/El Salvador 607 US/Saudi Arabia 10,711 US/Finland 2,419 US/Singapore 73 US/France 1,100,081 US/South Africa 2,733 US/Germany 872,745 US/Spain 7,846 US/Greece 5,249 US/Sweden 4,094 US/Guatemala 412 US Switzerland 331,355 US/Guyana 334 US/Taiwan 45,029 US/Honduras 37 US/Thailand 252 US/Hong Kong 131,139 US/Trinidad & Tobago 20 US/Indonesia 644 US/Turkey 443 US/Iran 1,861 US/United Arab Emirates 4,543 US/Iraq 800 US/United Kingdom 1,044,245 US/Ireland 1,942 US/Uruguay 695 US/Israel 414 US/Venezuela 40,182 US/Italy 23,547 US/Japan 290,936 US/Jordan 434 US/Kenya 32 US/Korea (South) 85 US/Kuwait 8,330 US/Multiple 178,776 US/Third Tier 342,754 Subtotal 4 8,457,880 Total all landholdings 15,102,037 1 A report is processed as "multiple" when no single country predominates -- for example, an equal partnership between a Canadian and a German. 2 A report is processed as "third tier" if three or more levels of ownership are reported with no foreign interests stated. 3 Total interests excluding U. S. corporations with foreign shareholders. 4 Total interest of U. S. corporations with foreign shareholders. Source: USDA, ERS, Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act data. U. S. agricultural landholdings of foreign owners, by State, December 31, 1995 State or Foreign-owned State or Foreign-owned State or Foreign-owned Territory in "agricultural land acres" Alabama 299,579 Alaska 75 Arizona 338,653 Arkansas 155,691 California 954,052 Colorado 678,173 Connecticut 881 Delaware 5,878 Florida 620,559 Georgia 558,953 Hawaii 180,058 Idaho 22,624 Illinois 209,549 Indiana 94,395 Iowa 33,105 Kansas 69,490 Kentucky 121,151 Louisiana 682,366 Maine 2,968,434 Maryland 51,260 Massachusetts 2,029 Michigan 444,239 Minnesota 221,971 Mississippi 444,286 Missouri 73,354 Montana 474,496 Nebraska 74,769 Nevada 388,393 New Hampshire 16,477 New Jersey 18,369 New Mexico 785,355 New York 280,614 N. Carolina 153,962 N. Dakota 27,839 Ohio 185,935 Oklahoma 56,306 Oregon 644,143 Pennsylvania 91,769 Puerto Rico 839 Rhode Island 17 S. Carolina 198,852 S. Dakota 42,957 Tennessee 83,010 Texas 1,209,677 Utah 61,013 Vermont 86,532 Virginia 144,284 Washington 389,777 W. Virginia 166,974 Wisconsin 77,890 Wyoming 210,983 Total 15,102,037 Source: USDA, ERS, Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act data. http://www.usda.gov/news/pubs/fbook97/2h.pdf Index to USDA Agricultural Economic Reports: http://www.nal.usda.gov/ref/USDApubs/aer.htm
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