Permanent Crops

The firm has had an action-packed 12 months since its entry into ag with MIRA’s acquisition of Vitalharvest, the launch of its own dedicated ag fund and a merger with Centuria Capital Group.

Returns of annual and permanent farmland remain divergent, with annual farmland seeing robust figures following favorable weather conditions and high farmgate prices.

OTPP’s AustOn will manage the new entity, known as Pomona Valley, with input from the current owners of the orchards.

The Melbourne-based GP is targeting 10-12% returns for its new vehicle, building on the 2019 launch of its Diversified Agriculture Fund.

Partner Andrew Sweet compares partially or fully developed fruit genetics libraries produced by government funding that has since dried to ‘stranded assets’, which the firm wants to acquire.

Agriculture showed ‘remarkable resilience’ as an asset class over 2020 as returns held relatively steady throughout the year.

Brent Snow says Aware Super’s ag investments proved to be a useful diversifier in its infrastructure portfolio during the coronavirus pandemic.

The open-ended fund plans to devote 20% of its investments to farmland infrastructure and timber investments in the US, LatAm, Europe and Australasia.

The pension has been drawn to ag because the pandemic showed the importance of the food supply chain and few investors are targeting the opportunity.

The firm will raise its first commingled fund focused on food after managing several investments in the sector since spinning out from Macquarie in 2014.