USDA: Foreign farmland ownership is up slightly

In a newly updated report, the USDA says that foreign investors held an interest in over 43.4 million acres of U.S. agricultural (farmland and forest) land at the end of 2022.

That represents an increase of over 3.4 million acres from a Dec. 31, 2021, report and represents 3.4% of all privately held agricultural land in the U.S., according to the 311-page document.

The findings are based on information submitted to the USDA in compliance with the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978.

Forest land accounted for over 48% of all reported foreign held acreage, with cropland accounting for 28%, pasture and other agricultural land for over 21% and nonagricultural land for slightly more than 2%. Foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land increased modestly from 2012 through 2017, increasing an average of 0.6 million acres per year, the report said.

Since 2017, foreign holdings have increased an average of nearly 2.9 million acres annually, ranging from 2.4 million acres to over 3.4 million acres per year, according to the report.