Ownership limit rules cooling Canada's farmland boom

Winnipeg

EIGHT years after almost doubling their money by selling a 320-acre (129.5 ha) chunk of their Saskatchewan farm, Mervin and Doreen McElree are having a more difficult time unloading the remaining 160 acres to finance their retirement.

While lower crop prices are partly to blame, the pool of potential bidders also is getting smaller. Saskatchewan, Canada's biggest agricultural province, imposed a temporary ban last month on certain investors acquiring farmland. The government's concern is that surging land values fuelled by pension-fund investment - while a boon to retiring growers - deters younger ones, boosts agricultural debt and threatens to create more tenant farmers.

The ban created a dilemma for the growing number of older farmers seeking to unload their land and halted planned purchases by investors including the country's largest pension fund. As much as C$50 billion (S$55.3 billion) of farms across Canada, the world's second-largest wheat exporter, will be sold by growers to finance their retirement over the next 15 years, according to investor Bonnefield Canadian…