But, as Ingka Investments Forestland country manager for New Zealand Kelvin Meredith explained, the company has its sights set further.<\/p>\n
\u201cA nice round number was 100,000 hectares, but we may not get there or we may exceed that. Strategically we\u2019ve got to have a number out there,\u201d Meredith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still a desire from the Ingka Group to keep investing in forestry, because it\u2019s a good investment. While the cash returns are steady, it\u2019s the increase in value in the asset that makes it worth owning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelvin Meredith, Ingka Investments Forestland country manager for New Zealand<\/p>\n
Meredith said there was no set deadline for when the group wanted to reach the milestone, and that sometimes the process is more opportunistic, especially in instances where large estates come on to the market.<\/p>\n
He said the company\u2019s holding here had grown quite rapidly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Ingka first came to New Zealand they were looking at afforestation, so buying up farmland to start a forest because it was seen as the right thing to do. Coincidentally, it really coincided with the big carbon planting boom, but that was never really on the radar to plant for carbon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a pure timber play, but we\u2019ve obviously been swept along in the whole carbon narrative, with farmland being converted to pine trees. We try not to buy the best farmland, we try to keep it. And if we do end up with some really good farmland, we try and subdivide and sell that off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meredith said Ingka had registered in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to preserve the value, but that the company wasn\u2019t sure what it planned to do with the carbon credits it had amassed.<\/p>\n
He stressed that the company did not want to be seen as carbon traders, noting that it \u201cdoesn\u2019t need the cash for business\u201d, nor desired to be associated with carbon income.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the future, we may look at doing something like selling off credits to fund biodiversity projects for example. There\u2019s a lot of internal discussions going on, but at the moment we\u2019re continuing to register because it is a government-verified carbon source.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 200 hectares of Ikea’s Central Hawke’s Bay forestry went up in flames in October. Photo \/ RNZ, Alexa Cook<\/p>\n
Local impact<\/p>\n
Ingka\u2019s team in New Zealand is showing no signs of slowing down despite resistance from local communities.<\/p>\n
Like most foreign purchases of large blocks of land, Ingka\u2019s acquisitions require government approval, but they don\u2019t need approval by the communities themselves.<\/p>\n
That is despite the fears of those in communities like Hawke\u2019s Bay<\/a>, who continue to worry about the fire risk from pine plantations, especially after a fire ripped through 250ha of forest in P\u014drangahau<\/a> late last year.<\/p>\n Meredith said solutions like fire insurance were prohibitively expensive, and that continued defunding of the Department of Conservation had eroded its ability to support prevention as well.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would support any change that would benefit fighting fires, but it has to be equitable across all landowners, not just forest owners. It needs to be practical, andit have a practical outcome, because no one wants lives in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n Other concerns from communities stem from Ingka\u2019s strategy of afforestation.<\/p>\n Since 2021, Ingka has afforested approximately 15,000ha of previously cleared pastoral land it says is \u201cunsuitable for agriculture\u201d.<\/p>\n Meredith said the company was strategically shifting away from just buying farmland, acknowledging the controversy it brought.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to buy existing forests where possible, and ideally with no carbon attached to them. So those forests that have been harvested, replanted and are just sitting there quietly growing, that\u2019s the perfect investment for us.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t need to be in the news for the wrong reasons, but if a good deal comes up on marginal farmland that suits forestry, and isn\u2019t going to be that destructive to the farming or beef-growing community, then we\u2019ll have a look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n Meredith said he was always \u201ca bit stunned\u201d with some of the rhetoric that comes via social media and farming weekly papers, but reiterated that the company is here for the long haul.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce we\u2019re in a community, we\u2019re established there. Our managers are all locals. Once we actually sit down with members of the community and explain who we are, we tend to get much more support.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of telling our story. This is what we\u2019re doing, if you\u2019ve got any concerns, we\u2019ve got nothing to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.<\/p>\n