Crafar dairy farms declined State-owned farmer Landcorp's bid, as it failed to compete with the other competitors. A joint bid was made by Landcorp along with its farming partner Wairakei Pastoral.

Crafar received more than 50 offers for all or part of the 16 southern and central North Island farms portfolios. The owners, Brendon Gibson and Michael Stiassny stated that the Landcorp's bid was not a preferable one and Negotiations with the preferred bidders would continue over coming days. After a public marketing campaign, the tender was closed the last week.

The Crafar family farms were put into receivership last year owing $200 million to the banks and PGG Wrightson Finance. They owned 13 dairy farms and three dry stock grazing properties in the Waikato, King Country, Bay of Plenty, Wanganui, Taranaki and Rangitikei ranging from 128ha to 1,750ha in size.

Landcorp put in a bid last month. At the time that its bid was less than the funds available from Chinese-backed Natural Dairy, that are believed to be over $200 million.

Landcorp chief executive Chris Kelly termed the bid an opportunistic one but significantly below the Natural Dairy bid. But he did not disclose the amount of its offer.

Chinese company Natural Dairy has a purchase agreement for all 16 farms of Crafar, provided that it gets nod from Overseas Investment Office.

Last week, Allan Crafar filed an application for a High Court command to stop the sale but it was denied.

The critics claimed that Landcorp's tender was a backdoor Government attempt to keep the farms out of foreign ownership, but its non-fulfillment shut their mouths.