Louisa Burwood-Taylor

A UK-based agtech business plan competition, GROW, has awarded first place to Agritopics, a project positioning white pea flour as a high-value ingredient for gluten-free products. Judges included the Grosvenor family office's early stage arm Wheatsheaf Group and angel investment company Martlet.

Delegates at Agri Investor's Australia Forum, including Elizabeth O'Leary, head of agriculture at Macquarie Group, discussed offering new product lines away from the traditional fund structure.

John Corbett, director of Hassad Australia, told delegates at Agri Investor’s inaugural Australia Forum in Melbourne this morning that Australia ticked many boxes for the Qatari Investment Authority's agri ambitions.

The joint venture between Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board and established farming family business Hewitt Cattle highlights various key aspects of agri investing in Australia.

Martin Newnham has been appointed chief executive after John McKillop left last year. Newnham is also CFO at the fund management firm.

Many corporate and institutional investments into Australian agriculture have not performed well compared to the returns achieved by the family farm, argues David Cornish, principal at Cornish Consultancy.

Australian sugar and guar cropping, meat processing and aquaculture project Integrated Food and Energy Development has signed an MOU with the Queensland government to access unallocated water in the Gilbert River.

First Guardian Agriculture's Australian Agriculture Fund is now targeting A$800m and will invest across commodities and parts of the value chain.

IFC invested $3.8m into Nepalese poultry feed producer Probiotech Industries alongside the Private Sector Window of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program.

The advice from BDO’s executive director of international business Cameron MacMillan comes ahead of an expected free trade agreement between Australia and India next year.