Crafar receivers Brendon Gibson and Michael Stiassny said more than 50 offers for all or part of the 16 southern and central North Island farms portfolio were received, but "regrettably" Landcorp’s bid was not among the preferred tenderers.

Negotiations with the preferred bidders would continue over coming days, the receivers said.

Tenders for the Crafar farms closed last week with the receivers after a public marketing campaign.

Landcorp made a joint bid with its farming partner in another central North Island venture Wairakei Pastoral.

Landcorp chief executive Chris Kelly said the SOE’s tender was always "an opportunistic bid" and he was not surprised.

"I’ve always said that if the rumours were correct, ours was significantly below the Chinese (Natural Dairy) bid. Others may have seen more in the farms than we did. These things happen."

He would not say how much Landcorp, the country’s biggest farmer, had offered.

The Crafar family farms were put into receivership last year owing $200 million to the banks and PGG Wrightson Finance.

Chinese company Natural Dairy has a purchase agreement for all 16 farms with the receivers, conditional on getting Overseas Investment Office consent and the receivers not getting a better or more suitable offer.