Recent land sales to foreigners show it is "business as usual" after an easing off in 2017, watchdog Campaign Against Foreign Control in Aotearoa says.
In late 2017 the Government tightened up the rules over farmland, forcing any sale of more than five hectares to undergo scrutiny by the Overseas Investment Office before it could be approved.
Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage said it was a privilege, not a right, for overseas owners to purchase New Zealand farmland.
The area of freehold and leasehold land sold to foreigners accelerated last year, reflecting an increased investment in forestry which has experienced buoyant returns, and away from dairy.
Export returns for forestry were $6.4 billion last year, and should come close to the $7b mark by the end of the year.
However while the total land area sold is higher, the number of applications has fallen away.
CAFCA said that last year the OIO approved the sale of 137,834 hectares of freehold rural land to foreigners, a substantial increase over 2017 when the sale of 25,696 ha was the lowest area of free-hold land since 2003. It is close to the average for the decade 2009-2018 of 135,157 ha.
About 127,000 ha of the freehold land and 5000 ha of the leases and other interests in land were from one foreign investor to another.
CAFCA said its best estimate, which dated back to 2011, was that at least 8.7 per cent of New Zealand farmland including forestry, or 1.3 million ha, was foreign-owned or controlled, although by now it could have reached 10 per cent.
Foreign investment in dairy farms and milk processing has tailed off in recent years. Synlait is 39 per cent owned by Chinese interests.
Besides the new policy restrictions, lower prices and payouts are likely to have led to the falling off in foreigners buying dairy farms or milk processing plants, a KPMG report on foreign investment shows.
The report says between 2013-18, foreigners bought 610,998 ha of freehold land and 160,093 ha of leasehold land, with North American investors accounting for 420,000 ha.
However CAFCA spokesman Bill Rosenberg, said these figures did not include "confidential transactions".
He said Overseas Investment Office statistics show in fact 801,360 ha was bought over the six-year period, with 248,932 ha paid for "other interests in land".
United States investors headed the pack, accounting for 44 per cent of freehold land sales and 34 per cent of leasehold, followed by Canada, China, Japan and Australia. While they did not buy freehold, Czech Republic investors bought 25 per cent of leasehold land.
Within the agribusiness sector, the areas attracting most investment over the 2013-18 period were dairy and milk processing (29 per cent), forestry (24 per cent), beef and sheep (12 per cent), wine (11 per cent) horticulture (9 per cent) and "other" (15 per cent).
KPMG deal advisory partner Justin Ensor said there had been a general decline in the number of approved applications in the agribusiness sector, which accounted for 11 per cent of all foreign investments.
"The trends suggest that foreign investment into agri-business has been declining, with some parts of this sector facing 'head winds' on the funding front," Ensor said.
"The agribusiness sector has relied on a degree of foreign investment over the past 10 years especially at the larger scale end of the sector, however with the trend downwards of approved applications this does create issues for the sector."
KPMG farm enterprise partner Brent Love said the drop in the number of approvals by the OIO suggested the New Zealand market was not as attractive to foreign investors as it once was.
"This is causing parts of the sector to struggle with investment and liquidity as bank funding has also become more challenging," he said.