crops

A busy selling season for institutional-grade farmland continues in Australia as two more fund managers look to secure a return amid record-high valuations.

Jonathan Sanderman, an associate soil scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, says expectations agricultural soils will gain carbon and provide income to farmers are too high.

Portfolio manager Jonathan Braams says the $C118bn asset manager is considering direct and fund investments to expand the role of ag within its renewable resources portfolio.

The ANREV Australian Farmland Index recorded strong capital appreciation in Q2 2021, with annual farmland continuing to outperform permanent farmland.

Farmland Opportunity president Jay Girotto says the full land market impact of recent ‘feast, then famine’ production dynamics in Pacific Northwest remains to seen.

The A$150bn Aware Super will sell the Lake Boga portfolio, a collection of assets previously owned by VicSuper pre-merger and managed by Kilter Rural.

Water allocation prices in the Murray-Darling Basin have reduced following a wet 2020-21 season – and the next 12 months are likely to see more of the same.

Water allocation prices have fallen, although stability in high-security water entitlement prices suggests a maturing of that part of the market.

Roc Partners’ Premium Food Fund was one of three buyers, alongside Primewest and another local buyer, for Harvard University’s Western Rosella portfolio.

Senior managing director Marc Drouin says underused irrigation infrastructure helped make the C$204.5bn pension’s entry into European ag a highlight within natural resources deployments last year.