But there is another side to the sales equation.
The Stevenson Group - which owns Lochinver - has since received advice that no other New Zealand party would be prepared to pay an equivalent price for the station. And that any NZ offer was likely to represent a 30 per cent discount on the Pengxin price.
What Bennett has also overlooked is the other 8000 or so jobs that the Stevensons told the Overseas Investment Office they would have created by reinvesting some of the $88 million sale proceeds in developing new businesses.
This recycling of capital - something that Cabinet Ministers sotto voce offer as a plus when it comes to Aucklanders cashing up equity in their homes via sales to foreign investors - was not given any weight by either the OIO or Bennett and her associate Land Information Minister Louise Upston.
The OIO reports acknowledged that the vendor's core business focused on other matters and that a purpose of selling Lochinver station was to raise capital.
But the OIO was not satisfied - from the information before it - that the sale would or was likely to result in other significant investment by the Stevenson Group.
The OIO also believed that Lochinver would be sold irrespective of whether the Pengxin deal proceeded.
This not only directly contradicts what the Stevenson Group told the OIO, but flies in the face of the public statements its chief executive Mark Franklin made one year ago when he said the sale would enable the company to develop a major new project around its large South Auckland quarry operations in Drury.
This development would take 15 years and was expected to create more than 8000 jobs.
The plan involves new warehouses, factories and other commercial/industrial buildings on the 360ha property.
The OIO was told that following after the adoption of its new strategic plan, the Stevenson Group had decided to prioritise the opportunities it had in its quarrying, coal-mining, transport and concrete manufacturing businesses and use the funds from the sale for this purpose.
They said significant and documented benefits would be generated from the investments - not only to the Stevenson Group - but New Zealand generally.
The Overseas Investment Office disagreed.
The OIO also knew best when it came to ascertaining whether the Stevenson Group would put Lochinver straight back on the block if the Pengxin deal was turned down.
Instead, the OIO - and its adviser - put weight on a hypothetical New Zealand purchaser.
The reality is that Lochinver was tendered within New Zealand first.
Masfen Farms and the Spencer family both submitted tenders which were about $20 million less than the final price achieved from Shanghai Pengxin. The Stevenson Group also told the OIO the other New Zealand bidders had no intention of carrying out dairy conversion work.
Bayleys had gone out to the most substantial New Zealand farming corporate interests including Wairakei Pastoral - which the OIO report highlights - but the only qualified New Zealand bidders were the Masfens and Spencers.
The Stevenson Group also told the OIO it would simply hold on to the station and continue to farm it for existing returns if the Shanghai Pengxin deal did not proceed.
Shanghai Pengxin is not out of options.
It could make a new application and increase the benefits to New Zealand.
It could also appeal against the rationale in the Overseas Investment Office's report to ministers.
Or it could just walk away.
