Dutch pension funds are the largest European investors in the purchase of agricultural land in the United States. Canada's timber industry is the largest buyer of American forests, followed by investments from the Dutch and Germans.
Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that foreign investors own at least 11.5 million hectares through outright ownership or long-term leases, worth approximately $52 billion.
Recent research by the journalist collective Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting recently revealed that approximately 2.8 million hectares are in the hands of Canadian owners, followed by the Netherlands with 2.0 million hectares. German investors account for approximately 785,000 hectares, the United Kingdom 688,000 hectares, Italy 567,000 hectares, Portugal 559,000 hectares and France 421,000 hectares.
The majority of American land owned by foreigners is not arable land, but forests: 54.9 percent (mainly many Canadian investors). Another 23.6 percent are pastures, and “only” 21.5 percent is arable land.
A former economist from the Dutch embassy in the US told an American newspaper that the extensive Dutch pension system needs secure and conservative investments to guarantee social security. According to those pension fund investors, the American agriculture and food industry are among them.
In Ohio and some other states, German investors are among the largest landowners. A German administrator recently said that German investors entered U.S. agriculture in the 1980s. They started buying land in Iowa and Minnesota. The focus then shifted to Ohio.
Previous research has shown that foreign ownership of American agricultural land doubled between 2004 and 2014. In 2016 alone, foreign investors purchased at least 650,000 hectares of agricultural land in the United States. This was the largest increase in more than ten years.
In addition to land purchases, there are also large foreign investors in the American agricultural sector: in 2013 the Chinese company Shuanghui bought the large American slaughterhouse Smithfield Foods. That is now owned by the Chinese WH Group, and currently owns almost 61,000 hectares of agricultural land in the United States. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, total Chinese investment in the U.S. agricultural sector has increased tenfold in less than a decade.