Climate

Partner Todd Solow says educating growers and retailers about the potential return on investment from the company’s plant health products was key to the investment’s success.

The historically timber-focused firm hired former Brookfield Asset Management director Stavros Koutsantonis this year as part of its expansion into conservation-focused agricultural investments.

Stafford made its first farm acquisitions in the country in December, using a separate account, head of agriculture and food Jos Boeren told us.

Farmland service provider Peoples Company and data firm Mercaris will work with producers and other industry contacts to produce a study on organic farmland as an asset class.

Land Down Under achieved total annual returns of 12.75%, compared with 6.87% in the US, according to the Australian Farmland Index.

Fund manager Gautier Quéru says he hopes fundraising will accelerate in 2019 to enable the UN-backed Land Degradation Neutrality Fund.

The Sydney-based manager is leaning on climate-change research to pick properties and is ‘confident’ returns will beat more passive strategies.

Head of farmland Detlef Schoen believes self-certification will be a thing of the past, with large-scale investors increasingly wanting proof of funds’ environmental credentials.

The country’s drive to reduce ammonia emissions from livestock has had a positive reception from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists keen to introduce new technology to catalyze change.

The ambitious project by the Dutch development bank will operate in West Africa and South East Asia.