Canada And Europe Dominate US Foreign Land Ownership

In the run-up to the U.S. presidential elections, both candidates have outlined their visions for agricultural policy - which do differ significantly.

After the publication of the traditional Farm Bureau questionnaire in mid-September, former President Donald Trump spoke today at an event in rural Pennsylvania on proposed bans of Chinese agricultural land purchases. 

Data from the USDA shows that at the end of 2022, 20 million acres of U.S. farmland, or 2.2 percent, were foreign owned.

China’s share was just a fraction of that and sinking.

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As Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, Chinese investors or U.S. corporations with Chinese shareholders owned just around 500,000 acres of U.S. land at the end of 2022 - 7 percent less than at the end of 2021.

Much more was owned by Canadian and European entities, for example from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany. 

Experts said that they saw no threat from Chinese land and agricultural land purchases.

However, the purchase of land close to military installations by foreign investors was recently restricted under the Biden Administration, following controversies around Chinese purchases.

Some states have also taken action in this regard.