Citing data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) on Oct. 26 released an article, “Foreign Ownership of U.S. Agricultural Land Still Growing.”
Key takeaways include:
- The share of foreign-owned U.S. land continues to increase. In 2024, foreign entities held approximately 47.24 million acres of U.S. agricultural land. That’s up 91% since 2010, accounting for 3.6% of agricultural land in the United States.
- Entities from Canada and Europe hold the most U.S. land. Canadian investors hold around 16.1 million acres while European countries combined hold more than 18 million acres of U.S. farmland.
- Chinese investment in U.S. farmland has been a large topic of conversation. In 2024, Chinese investors held approximately 245,000 acres. This is less than 1% of foreign-owned agricultural land.
- Most foreign-owned U.S. land is not used for farming. In fact, nearly half is forestland, and large amounts are used for renewable energy projects such as solar and wind.
While foreign ownership continues on a long-term upward trend, the pace has slowed, the article reported.
AFBF reported that Texas has the most foreign-held agricultural land at 5.9 million acres, a mix of forestland, renewable energy leases and ranchland. Maine follows at 3.5 million acres, with nearly all of it timber. As a share of a state’s privately held ag land, Maine leads at 21.3%, followed by Hawaii at 17.1%.
In 2024, 34 states gained foreign-held acreage while 12 lost foreign-held acreage. The largest gains came in New Mexico (+235,000 acres), Texas (+231,000), Oklahoma (+198,000), Oregon (+147,000) and Mississippi (+113,000). Wind and solar leases drove the growth in New Mexico and Texas, while Oklahoma’s increase came from a mix of timber and wind.
North Carolina posted the largest decline, down 181,000 acres (23%), almost entirely from one foreign timber company reducing its holdings. Arkansas fell by 64,000 acres.
See the full AFBF article here.
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