Institutional and Private Capital Flows into International Farmland

Wed 29 November 2017

Mill Lane Lecture Rooms

99.5% of the farmland in the world is currently in private hands. However institutional investment in farmland has been growing at 8?10% p.a. and currently represents about USD 45 billion out an ‘investable universe’ of about USD 1 trillion. Historically this investment has been mostly concentrated in North America using a passive ‘own and lease out model’ but over the last decade we have seen substantial investments in Latin American agribusinesses, in New Zealand Dairy Units and Australian Cattle Stations, and in large scale commodity production in the Former Soviet Union. Typically, these investments have included operational exposure to the farming as well as ownership of the underlying real estate. However, four years of bumper output have depressed agricultural commodity prices and operating returns and many of these new investments have performed poorly as institutions lack agricultural management competences. Is the age of Farmland Investment ‘over’ or is this a temporary blip in the establishment of this new institutional asset class?

Carl Atkin is a Director of Terravost Limited, an international agribusiness management and consulting business based in Cambridge. Terravost works with private individuals, family offices, institutions, corporations and funds looking to gain exposure to agricultural real estate investments, operational farming opportunities and value chain investments across the world. Terravost specialises in the assessment, acquisition, on-going management, consultancy and divestment of agribusinesses. The team have extensive experience across Europe, including the management of over 300,000 ha of farmland in Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Hungary, France and the UK and extensive agribusiness consultancy for investors and agribusinesses in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Cost: free