Canadian investment giant AIMCo has teamed up with agricultural asset manager New Forests to buy Macquarie’s Lawson Grains for close to $600 million in the biggest real estate farming deal of the year, highlighting institutional investor appetite in the booming agricultural sector.

Lawson Grains, which forms part of Macquarie’s $562 billion asset management platform, was put up for sale in March by US-based Macquarie Crop Partners as it approached the end of a 10-year investment mandate.