Commodities trader Jim Rogers, known for his investment prowess alongside George Soros, is in Australia to launch a new rural land fund which is seeking to raise up to $350 million to buy farms in northern NSW
Agrifirma Brazil, the well-connected farmland investment company, is investigating opportunities outside South America after placing most of its Brazilian agriculture operations into a joint venture with private equity heavyweight.
Investors are pouring into farmland in the US and parts of Europe, Latin America and Africa as global food prices soar.
Jim Rogers, the co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum hedge fund, is particularly bullish about agriculture saying that shortages in a range of agricultural products will produce strong prices not only in those commodities but also in farm land.
Australians do realise the value of what is being sold, a land agent and rural property specialist said, "but their hands are tied because they can't raise the money".
“It’s not common in Brazil to find farmers presenting accounts to international investors. What you can see here is the new model for agribusiness in Brazil,” says André Pessôa, co-ordinator of the Rally da Safra.
"It's very, very cheap, it's incredibly fertile, and it hasn't been overexploited. And if you take in some expertise and some machinery and some fertilizer, you should make a lot of money," says investment guru Jim Rogers of Africa's farmlands
"In any resource sector, if you want to get involved, you always want to be in the upstream. It doesn't matter whether it's mining, whether its oil and gas or agriculture," says ABN AMRO's Tariono.
