Canada

Des investisseurs chinois lorgnent des terres dans la région de Saint-Hyacinthe.

The model of owning farmland and operating it suits long-term, low-risk investors, with most investments so far being from institutions. The downside is that farmland investments provide little chance of a quick exit, unlike more liquid holdings.

Canadian investor acquires 100,000 hectare plantation in DRC as part of its investment in farmland and large-scale food crop production in Africa.

Les terres agricoles québécoises sont déjà dévorées par des autoroutes, des mégacentres commerciaux, des développements immobiliers et des terrains de golf... Maintenant, ce sont les Chinois qui veulent les acheter !

Une filiale américaine de la Financière Manuvie qui a récemment fait une percée au Québec en achetant des terres agricoles totalisant 450 hectares dans les Bois-Francs affirme qu'elle est venue au Canada avec la ferme intention d'y rester et d'y prendre de l'expansion.

Hancock Agricultural Investment Group, a Boston-based unit of Toronto's Manulife Financial Corp., decided its first Canadian purchase would be an 1,100-acre (450-hectare) patch of land that it called "one of the most highly productive properties in the industry." The company will not disclose how much it paid, or even the exact location of the farm. But president Jeff Conrad said the company is in Canada to stay, and the fund plans to seek more land.

According to Steve Yuzpe, the CFO of Sprott Resource, ongoing population growth, dwindling arable land, water issues, even the falling yield productivity delivered by genetically modified seeds will be the big drivers for continued record demand—pushing food prices ever higher.

Direct investment in farmland has outperformed stock and bond returns over various timescales with substantially lower volatility than the US equity market, according to Stephen Johnston of Calgary-based Agcapita Partners

While everyone from the Rothschild’s – via the Agrifirma Brazil fund, run with Jim Slater – through to Nicola Horlick and UBS are snapping up farmland in Brazil, I’m fascinated by another niche: Canada and New Zealand.

While ordinary Canadians watch their pensions and jobs evaporate in the global economic mess, those who brought us the crisis have found a new profit-making toy. It’s land-grabbing, 21st-century style. Canada is not being spared.

Trade minister Stockwell Day said that Canada stands to benefit from the Saudi Kingdom’s overseas agricultural investment initiative and that the Canadian Parliament is studying it.

From Kansas to Kenya, investment opportunities in a range of global farm-related ventures are increasingly drawing capital to what many players and analysts see as the early days of a burgeoning bull market in agriculture.