Australia

Institutional investors are driving movement in Australia's poultry farm property market, underscoring sustained demand for agricultural assets that offer steady, passive income.

A trio of dairy farms spanning a combined 570 hectares in the state’s north have been listed for sale after more than a decade in the hands of Swedish owners.

In a rare move, Australia’s largest agricultural landholder by value, the mammoth Canadian pension fund PSP, has listed a significant cropping aggregation in southern Queensland for sale.

Australian agricultural investor and developer GO. FARM, with the help of Qantas Super backing, has acquired the 2666ha Dellapool Aggregation, formerly owned by Ferrero, the global manufacturer of famous brands such as Nutella, Ferrero Rocher and Kinder Surprise.

Agriculture & Natural Solutions Acquisition Corporation announced agreement for a business combination with the iconic Australian Food & Agriculture Company Limited, one of the largest diversified agricultural portfolios in New South Wales

Privately-owned Australian Food & Agriculture Company has sold its 13 New South Wales farms spanning 225,405 ha to NASDAQ-listed Agriculture & Natural Solutions Acquisition Corporation for $780 million.

Swedish pension fund Forsta AP-fonden is downsizing its Australian farmland holdings after listing about $50 million of cropping properties in Western Australia’s Great Southern region.

Canadian super fund manager Alberta Investment Management Corp has completed contracts for its purchase of the Kimberley Meat Co beef processing facility in Western Australia’s Kimberley region that includes pastoral leases covering 475,000 ha.

Silva Capital invests in agricultural land to develop large-scale carbon sequestration projects by reforesting cleared areas, while ensuring the land remains productive for farming.

“Probably the biggest growth is in working with large institutional investors at large pension funds and insurance companies, and also some quite large family offices,” which manages over 300,000 ha of farmland and timberland in the US, Europe and Australia.

Australia's Costa family, which already has 88,000 hectares of farms under management, has announced plans to invest $600 million in a new agriculture fund.

Global institutional investors, led by Canadian pension funds, are piling into the sector, a trend mirroring growing allocations to the farming and related rural sectors worldwide.