Clare Pennington

The market value for institutionally owned US timber was $24.3bn in the first quarter of this year.

Australian firm Laguna Bay’s chief executive Tim McGavin, tells us he thinks an opportunistic fund strategy is best suited to Australian agriculture and what pensions want from the sector

Responsible for real assets at NMSIC, she has been appointed to the role of general manager of investments at Australian Unity, which has investments in Real Estate Investment Trusts and commercial property.

Wilfred Morren, founder of land investment brokerage firm Farmland Uruguay, outlines how forestry and farmland certification was achieved on a mixed cattle, forestry and cropping investment in Uruguay.

Experienced row-crop farm manager Springer has been appointed regional director of acquisitions at the firm, which was formed by the merger of Halderman and US Agriculture last year.

The merchant bank, which manages assets for family offices, institutional investors and insurance companies, has taken on an agriculture and sustainability investment specialist as a managing director.

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 IFC is providing feed, farming and veterinary company Anova with $15m in financing, as it looks to improve Vietnam's livestock sector.

Though using biomass-based products can be environmentally friendly, investors must monitor supply-chain risk to have a true impact.

After visiting Australia, our editor notes the challenges that will face the country's agri market, how to cope with them and some of the top strategies to seek out new opportunities down under.