Soil

The sixth Agri Investor Australia Forum, held in Melbourne this month, covered topics as diverse as natural capital, carbon markets, family office strategies and water.

The Agri Investor Australia Forum, held last week, saw constant discussion of natural capital’s potential – but the term was less familiar to international investors.

New Harvest, chaired by industry veteran Don Mackay, is aiming to hold a first close of A$150m before the end of 2022.

New Agriculture’s Bruce King and New Forests’ Mark Rogers discuss the new division’s strategy, what investors want from the asset class, and the potential blend of farmland and forestry into a single investment product.

QIC, New Forests and Macquarie Asset Management are taking different approaches to the nascent asset class, but there are common themes.

New Agriculture will be led by Bruce King, who joined the firm in 2022, and will manage the Lawson Grains portfolio it acquired in 2021.

QIC plans to raise at least A$500 million for the Queensland Natural Capital Fund, its first commingled agriculture and natural capital fund.

Tom Strachan was an executive director at Packhorse Pastoral Company and an investor in agricultural properties, after founding and selling labor hire company AWX.

The market for Australian Carbon Credit Units has been thriving, but recent developments have thrust it into the spotlight – which may not be a bad thing.

Changes to how government buys carbon credits could see holders collectively benefit from a A$2.4bn windfall from sales on the open market instead.