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Chief sustainability officer Brian Kernohan says fund-level reporting and enrolling 300,000 acres into Leading Harvest part of designed to respond to growing sustainability scrutiny among LPs.

The two firms had steadily outbid each other over the past several months, with a final offer price now one-third higher than the first bid submitted by Macquarie in November 2020.

The Lithuanian firm has reached the halfway mark towards its €100m target for the 2020-vintage vehicle, which will invest in the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe.

Confidence among farmers is strong after a bumper 2020 winter crop, with hopes that a repeat this year will set the sector up for years to come.

The race to buy and build profitable greenhouses favors capital that can strengthen project finance, construction and government relations networks in key geographies.

Partner Liz Harrison says a decrease among US producer respondents willing buy inputs online reflects large suppliers' lack of commitment to digital channels and the growing role of trusted agronomists.

Ejnar Knudsen says US pensions are among LPs in a distinct AGR vehicle focused on the type of ag-related real assets that proved resilient throughout covid-19-related shutdowns.

The $750m vehicle follows the same buy-and-build strategy of its $433m predecessor and is likely to attract LPs from Europe and the Middle East as well as North America.

Partner Ben Kortlang says Los Angeles-headquartered ProducePay aims to provide fresh produce the same information sharing and intermediary functions that have transformed transportation and used car markets.

Chairman Dave Chen says the 40-acre planned greenfield facility reflects the growing demand for scale in greenhouse sector that has rendered some smaller facilities ‘stranded assets.’