Agricultural land investment is clearly the hot ticket of the moment, with every level of investor from institutional funds such as Schroders and Barings investing millions of pounds, to smaller retail investors with a few thousand seeking good quality farmland for investment. Whether you have access to 50 million or 20,000, there are projects and strategies available on the open market to suit your budget and requirement, from the UK to Australia, and from the Ukraine to South America, all with subscribing to different investment strategies, and some less credible in terms of end value than others.

One part of the current trend that alarms me is the apparent rush of retail investors to invest in farmland overseas, buying up title or leases with little or no comprehension of the true value of the underlying asset. For which they are parting with hard earned cash for. Agricultural land produces soft-commodities (food), and as such the value of the land is intrinsically linked to current pricing trends for whichever commodity is being produced by that land, along with a host of other factors. Currently food commodity  Invest in Ukraine prices are at a forty year low, indicating a huge margin for growth in value of both soft-commodities and therefore the underlying asset that produces them, yet investors that lack experience seem to be purchasing or leasing farmland outside their domiciled country without sight of any kind of credible, regulated valuation, seemingly smitten with the story of growth and income, without truly understanding the fundamentals supporting farmland investment, risk, or exit strategy.

When speaking to clients on a daily basis about the relevance of investing in farmland as part of an overall low-risk strategy, I think it is most important for investors to understand the fundamentals supporting agricultural land investment, as well as the various investment strategies that can be employed to gain exposure to this sector and asset class, and more importantly, investors should have enough knowledge to decide whether farmland investment is a suitable asset allocation strategy to suit their own needs. Here are some of the broad profiles of investors that should or should not investigate the prospect of investing in farmland:

– Investors that Should Consider Farmland
– Investors that Should Not Consider Farmland
– Investors holding cash as part of a low-risk portfolio
– Investors with a requirement to leverage
– Investors requiring stable, consistent income
– Investors with a high-risk approach / strategy
– Investors with a necessity to hedge inflation
– Investors with a risk-averse approach
– Investors desiring exposure to property

Current Market Conditions

If this article is to be well-rounded and achieve the goal of helping the investor to make an informed decision, it is important to explore the current market conditions that have led to this whirl of interest in farmland investment from both the retail and institutional sectors.

Firstly, we are seeing price volatility in more traditional asset classes such as stocks and bonds, which is a result mostly of the fact that the world is still in a precarious economic position with very poor levels of forward visibility. With Economists unable agree with each other and comfortably project where our global and national economies are headed, it is very difficult to price and value assets such as companies, and therefore the shares that make up these businesses.