Dairy

The vehicle aims to raise A$500m in its first 12 months, providing loans of A$10m-$150m to counterparties across a variety of commodities.

The aggregation of seven dairy farms in Victoria is in the ‘top echelon’ of Australian dairy producers, a source says.

Managing director Chris Sun says improving food safety conditions and the influence of key opinion leaders on China’s consumers help make the company’s direct-to-consumer model especially attractive.

The Foreign Investment Review Board has become a ‘de facto security regulator’, according to Lachlan Molesworth of Foreign Investment Advisory Australia.

Dave Chen says the pause on fundraising for the firm’s $300m follow-up to its $184m debut wastewater vehicle comes as investors display growing interest in renewable natural gas.

The firm intends to draw on its inaugural fund’s ‘very successful' investment in Farefield Dairy as it seeks to support Glacier Products’ expansion across Africa.

VC investment into agtech has grown 75% since 2014 and looks keen to keep growing as the sector offers opportunities across types of investors.

A trade dispute between China and Australia emerged in 2020, with the latter on the receiving end of threats of import suspensions and tariffs. A report from Rural Bank shows the extent to which each commodity could be affected.

Some US LPs have ‘formal mandates to reduce their allocation to Asia’ due to the US-China trade war, said Proterra Asia managing partner Tai Lin.

PSP head of natural resources Marc Drouin said the pension would look to do more post-farmgate investments in Australia and could work with local funding partners more in future.