[1] The family business owned 22 dry stock and dairy farms with approximately 20,000 cows in various regions of the North Island, and was put into receivership in October 2009.
[6] In August 2008, Ian Balme the chair of Environment Waikato's regulatory committee described the Crafar family as "the poster boys for dirty dairying", whose "track record suggests they consider public waterways a perfectly appropriate place to tip their cowshed effluent".
[14] In March 2009, the National Business Review reported that Allan Crafar and the CraFarm group, had been labelled the "poster boy for dirty dairying" by many in the industry.
The offences related to dairy effluent spilling from ponds, feed pads, a broken irrigator hose and sumps leading to over-irrigation of paddocks.
[21] On 7 June 2010, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry informed the Dominion Post that its investigations were not complete and that it was too early to say if prosecutions for offences involving animal cruelty would be laid.
[22] A MAF spokesman said that the investigation was taking time due to the need to assess ownership, control and responsibility for animal welfare within the complex relationships of the Crafar Farms group.
[26] The New Zealand Herald reported that Westpac, Rabobank and PGG Wrightson Finance, were owed about $NZ200 million, and had placed Crafar Farms into receivership as it was in breach of the covenants of the loans.
[3] The company Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings, which previously had been known as the China Jin Hui Mining Corporation, agreed to buy the Crafar family farms pending approval of the Overseas Investment Office.
[27] Prime Minister John Key admits 'concerns' about the sale of land to overseas interests,[28] and the Chinese company objected to a (lower) bid by government-owned Landcorp.
[29] In December 2010, acting on the recommendation of the Overseas Investment Office, the Government decided not to approve Natural Dairy NZ's application to buy 16 farms from receivers.
[30] In January 2011, the Shanghai-based company Pengxin International Group Limited made an offer to purchase the 16 North Island farms and applied to the Overseas Investment Office for consent.
[32][33] On 15 February 2012 the High Court set aside the decision and ordered the Government to consider the application again after a judicial review requested by the Crafar Farms Purchase Group.