This Foreign Government Owns the Most American Land

One of the world’s largest pork producers, Hong Kong-based WH Group, purchased Smithfield Foods in 2013 – and with it over 146,000 acres of Missouri farmland.

Panama was exposed as a hub for murky finance and tax avoidance with the leak of the so-called Panama Papers from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, an industry leader in offshore finance. The largest Panamanian entity to ever purchase U.S. land was Beaver Timber Holdings, a company that purchased 19,968 acres of land in Okaloosa, Florida, in 1983.

The entire country of Liechtenstein is only around 40,000 acres, but individuals and companies from the country own nearly five times that amount in U.S. agricultural land. Business Insider ranked Liechtenstein as one of the world’s top 15 tax havens in 2019. The Seg Anstalt Company, headquartered in Liechtenstein, has a branch in North Carolina and has purchased over 15,000 acres in the state.

Several forest, land management, mining, and solar companies among others based in Australia own large swaths of land in Southern states, including West Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia among others, as well as Washington and Wyoming. Much of the land is forest.

Blandin Paper Company was originally founded in Minnesota in the 1940s but was sold to Finnish company UPM in 1977. With the sale, UPM took control of Blandin’s assets and has continued to buy more land, especially in Minnesota.

Several timber and woodland farm Austrian companies own land in Georgia. The Liechtenstein Group, headquartered in Austria, owns real estate holdings in the United States and has a portfolio of global companies in a range of sectors.

Several land development and wind farm companies own land in Midwest states including North and South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas.

Several holding companies based in Belgium hold ranches and other agricultural lands in Montana and other states.

The Lake Superior Land Company, headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, purchased over 140,000 acres in Michigan in 1993. The BVI are also on Business Insider’s list of top tax havens.

Eighty-five Chinese investors own land in the United States. Recently, there was a controversy when Chinese biomanufacturer Fufeng Group proposed building a wet corn milling plant 12 miles from an Air Force base in North Dakota.

Japanese carmakers Toyota and Honda both own substantial acreage in the United States where they have plants that produce automobiles and parts. Other holdings, timber, mine, and livestock Japanese companies own land in New Mexico, California, and other Western states.

The Cayman Islands are also on Business Insider’s list of tax havens. In 2013, a Caymanian company called Mwf Adirondacks, Llc. purchased nearly 104,000 acres in St. Lawrence County, New York.

Nordic Texarkana, one of the largest Swedish landowners of U.S. land, bought 16 parcels of land in 2016, ranging in size from 184 to almost 14,000 acres, all in Texas and Arkansas.

Sandoz, a division of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, has made several acquisitions of U.S. land over the years, including 4,500 acres in South Carolina and four separate purchases in Nebraska.

Asarco, a mining, refining, and smelting company first founded in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, has since been bought by Mexican-based Grupo Mexico. Asarco bought numerous tracts of land in 1999, the largest at almost 21,000 acres. Several Mexican companies own land in states along the U.S.-Mexico border, including in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona as well as Utah and California.

The Jefferson Smurfit Corporation, an Ireland-based maker of paperboard and newsprint, has purchased significant amounts of U.S. land, including 100,000 acres in Clinch County, Georgia.

Many of the largest U.S. landowners based in Luxembourg are timber and forestry companies. The largest plot of U.S. land owned by Luxembourgers is 100,000 acres in Maine, purchased by Sandy Gray Forest Llc. in 2016.

Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk has purchased four plots of land in Franklin County, North Carolina, over the years. Dane companies holding larger parcels of U.S. land, however, include holding,timber, and woodland companies.

EDF Renewables is a French company that builds and operates renewable energy facilities around the world. Its biggest project in the United States is the 41,000 acre Roosevelt Wind Project in New Mexico.

There are numerous wind energy projects that have been developed in the United States by Portuguese companies like Energias de Portugal. The largest is the Number Nine Wind Farm, at 58,000 acres in Aroostook County, Maine.

Agrochemical company Monsanto dropped its name after it was acquired by German company Bayer in 2018. Monsanto owned dozens of plots of land throughout the United States, which are now controlled by Bayer. Other companies, however, including ranch operators, holding, and wind farm companies, own larger parcels of land mostly in Southern states.

BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, has several subsidiaries in the United States like BP America Production, which owns several tracts of land around the country. Other U.K.-based companies, including mining, damond, and other natural resource companies own considerable land in Western states such as New Mexico, California, Colorado, and Washington.

The Azure Sky Wind Project is a major wind energy installation in Throckmorton County, Texas, owned by Enel Green Power, a subsidiary of the Italian Enel Group.

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell, owns numerous tracts of land in New Jersey and Colorado through its subsidiary Shell Frontier Oil & Gas. Dutch timber companies, however, own even more land in Southern states such as Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Canadian oil and gas company Ovintiv, formerly known as Encana, owns significant tracts of land in Colorado, Texas, and beyond. Timber companies own even larger tracts in Maine, Texas, and Michigan.