Russia

Russia’s sovereign wealth fund has partnered for the first time with the Israeli investment firm to invest up to $100m in Russia’s dairy farming and milk processing sectors.

Agriculture, food and retail will be top priorities for the Sino-Russian vehicle, which will also target mining and infrastructure investments.

The RDIF plans to make $4bn in co-investments to agriculture aby 2018, and will focus on businesses with local and export markets, its chief executive officer Kirill Dmitriev said earlier this week.

The state-backed fund will work with Thai agribusiness Charoen Pokphand as a primary partner and focus on vertically integrated projects, often with Asian markets in mind.

The agtech specialist is the first technology investment by the Canadian real estate company, which first invested in Farmers Edge in August 2015.

Chinese, Thai and Middle Eastern investors are to help fund and run the super-sized, vertically integrated project.

The Swedish investment firm sells farming company Rolnyvik but holds on to agri investments in Russia.