Dutch tulip bulb producer Triflor NZ Ltd has made its first major land purchase in this country, buying a 60ha farm at Edendale.
The $2.7 million transaction required consent from the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) and was settled last week, company director and Balclutha lawyer Lee McAuslan said yesterday. Triflor, set up in Edendale 13 years ago, is one of several companies with Dutch connections growing tulips in Southland for their bulbs.
The bulbs are harvested in January/February and sent to northern hemisphere countries where they are raised in hothouses to bloom in the northern winter when flower prices are at their peak.
In recent years, Triflor has been exporting about 45 million bulbs annually, mostly to the US and Canada.
Mr McAuslan said Triflor had ''insignificant'' land ownership in New Zealand until last week. In the early 2000s, it bought a small site on the Edendale-Seaward Downs Rd and built a bulb grading and packing shed. That facility had been extended over the years.
Buying the Tramway Rd East farm was ''great for the community and Triflor'', he said.
''It shows our long-term commitment to Southland and gives us insurance the land we need will be available.''
Tulips had to be rotated and a lot of land was required, he said. After land had been used for one growing season, tulips could not be grown again in the same place for about another seven years.
Until now, the company had leased land from dairy farmers and would need to continue doing that to some extent, he said.
The OIO is a department of Land Information New Zealand which considers applications by foreign companies and individuals wanting to buy ''sensitive'' land in this country.
In its decision, the OIO said the application had been granted because the purchase met several criteria under the Overseas Investment Act, 2005, including increased economic activity by the company and job retention for New Zealanders.
