Emerging Markets

Better public-private alignment, improved logistics and a change in investment mindset can turn the continent’s food challenges into a strength, say Proterra Asia’s Tai Lin and Cohen Tan.

CEO Aleksandra Holmlund explains why improving biodiversity in working forests is a plausible path to scale, despite the negative impacts on harvesting income and carbon capture.

Weight-loss drugs are changing eating habits in wealthy economies, say reports. But with population growth, rising emerging-market incomes and finite arable land, agriculture’s investment case is shifting – rather than shrinking – toward productivity and quality.

Limited partners include AMB Holdings, Builders Vision, Cisco Foundation, Stray Works and Australian impact investing firms Understorey Ventures and Wedgetail.

Capital was deployed from the firm’s sustainable land fund strategy and will help scale the US-based company’s operations in Indonesia’s organic coconut sugar products market.

The full-year figures show agri-food and forestry fundraising registered its second-highest haul in the past five years.

Climate Fund Managers’ $1bn close showed why the structure is important to climate finance, while the slowdown in debt-for-nature swaps demonstrated its vulnerabilities.

The Kingdom will anchor a permanent crop vehicle and a cold-chain infrastructure fund in pursuit of its goal, and could set fundraising records along the way.

The secondaries specialist has rolled up Timberland Funds VI, VII and VIII into the Stafford International Timberland Continuation Fund.

The vehicle has been backed by investors including CalSTRS, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund and Environment Agency Pension Fund.