As controversy continues to bubble in Australia over the latest big local farmland buy-up and what it means for food production, it’s worth looking to see where these foreign raiders are coming from, who’s backing them and how other countries are tightening their regulations to stop them.
Pension funds may be one of the few classes of land grabbers that people can pull the plug on, by sheer virtue of the fact that it is their money.
Some pension funds are beginning to question their investments in commodities after accusations that massive flows into the sector have distorted markets, fuelled food inflation and hurt poor nations.
Denmark's PKA has invested DKK250m (€33.5m) in African agriculture via the Silverland private equity fund (a SilvertStreet Capital fund)
The global financial crisis may have hit tax-effective agribusiness schemes hard, but the prospects of the small group of companies that survived are anything but gloomy. "We're actually tapping into the new GFC, which is the global food crisis," says Wayne Overall, executive director of agribusiness managed investment scheme operator Almond Investors Limited
- The Australian
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15 June 2011
The Swedish National Pension Fund is teaming up with US institutional investor TIAA-CREF to buy farmland in Australia.
- Stock & Land
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14 June 2011
Protestors have been demonstrating in Geneva against the growth in investments in agriculture that they say endangers food security in many developing countries.
- swissinfo.ch
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09 June 2011
The Second Swedish National Pension Fund (AP2) will invest $250 million in a joint venture with a US pension fund and financial services provider to buy farmland in the United States, Brazil and Australia.
- Top1000Funds
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08 June 2011
Foreign speculators are increasing price volatility and supply insecurity in the global food system, according to a series of investigative reports released today by the Oakland Institute.
- Oakland Institute
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08 June 2011
Investors are thinking big when it comes to farmland purchases, reports Andrew Shirley in Knight Frank's Wealth Report 2011
- Knight Frank
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02 June 2011
That land is far more complex and valuable than plain dirt was one of the central themes of FC Business Intelligence’s “World Agriculture Investment USA” conference in Chicago on May 9-10, 2011. A report from AllAboutAlpha.
- AllAboutAlpha
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30 May 2011
Swedish pension buffer fund AP2 and US pension fund manager TIAA-CREF have formed a joint venture to invest at least US$500 million in farmland in the US, Australia and Brazil.
- Global Pensions
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25 May 2011
The world’s second-oldest profession–farming–is a hot investment
- Philadelphia Inquirer
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17 May 2011
So many Wall Street-types crammed the Waldorf Astoria in New York City last week for a global farmland and agribusiness conference that hosts warned the crowd of 600 not to block the fire exits.
- Progressive Farmer
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11 May 2011
Pensionskassernes Administration, a Denmark-based fund that manages about $25 billion, plans to invest $370 million in farmland globally, said Jens Henrik Staugaard Johansen, a portfolio manager.
Rural MPs, especially those from NSW and Queensland, have been fielding increasing complaints from constituents in recent months about the level of foreign ownership of Australian farms and agricultural businesses.
- Canberra Times
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30 April 2011
Black River's investment pipeline includes a Chinese pork producer and distributor, a duck farming firm in northern China, a fish producer in Costa Rica and a frozen fish processor in Singapore.
Investors are buying Canadian agricultural land, betting that rising food prices, a ballooning global population and growing worldwide scarcities in farmland will mean a payoff for them.
As a relatively new and untapped asset class, farmland remains mysterious to some insitutional investors. Greg Bright spoke to Charmion McBride, chief operating officer, global farmland, at Insight Investment in the UK.
- Top1000Funds
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02 February 2011
"All of a sudden the world is waking up and saying, 'Wow, emerging markets, food security... this asset class is going to really perform in the medium term -- the next 8-20 years,'" says new convert James Howard, manager of the Futuregrowth Agri-Fund
Alberta pension fund pays $415 million for more than 1500 square miles of forest in Australia to be converted to timber plantations and agriculture.
- Dow Jones
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28 January 2011
Brookfield will invest in Brazilian properties primarily comprised of pasture land that may be converted to higher-and-better uses, including soybean, corn and sugarcane production
Finding suitable farmland investment vehicles is not as easy as one might think.
Real asset investments held by the fund include farmland and natural resources.
- Global Money Management
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03 December 2010
Saskatchewan has some of the richest and least expensive farmland in the world, and there's a gigantic pool of global money that would like to buy up as much of it as they can.
- Globe and Mail
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24 November 2010
Global investment funds have sunk as much as $20-billion (U.S.) into farmland, last year alone they bought 111 million acres of farmland.
- Globe and Mail
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24 November 2010
“There are people that are dying to invest large sums of money to acquire farmland in Canada that aren't Canadian citizens,” says Jan Kaminski, founder of Bonnefield.
- Globe and Mail
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24 November 2010
Bankers and fund managers are scrambling to build up rural expertise in response to rocketing investor demand to buy entire farms as an inflation hedge.
Investment managers in the US report rising interest from pension schemes and retail investors in funds that buy and run farmland in developed countries.
Wary of fluctuations on Wall Street, more wealthy Americans, private funds and foreigners are putting money into parcels of cornfields, fruit orchards and other US agricultural products.
- LA Times
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19 September 2010