Thought to be a done deal, the sale of the 16 Crafar farms to Chinese company, Shanghai Pengxin, was halted when High Court Judge Forrest Miller flicked the onus back to Government Ministers Maurice Williamson and Jonathan Coleman, and the Overseas Investment Office, earlier this week.

Now it seems all bets are off, or on, depending on your point of view.

A group of north island farmers and Iwi, led by Sir Michael Fay, has indicated it will up its earlier bid of $171.5 million, spurned by Receiver, KordaMentha for being too low, promising to match or even better, the Pengxin offer of around $200 million.

And former owner Allan Crafar wants to buy the farms back.

“I have never given up on buying my farms back” he told Country99TV this week after appearing, for the first time ever, in an exclusive studio interview for the current affairs programme Straight Talk.

Allan Crafar says he had spoken to the Receiver and been told he would not cancel the Pengxin deal.

Indeed, the Receiver has said there are a lot of people expressing interest in buying the properties at the moment, but he is refusing to consider rival bids, giving Shanghai Pengxin until Wednesday next week, to come back with a sign-off that has the OIO and Government's seal of approval.