Rural Funds Group will lift its payout ratio to 101 per cent this financial year to ensure it can maintain its policy of growing distributions, as it ramps up the development of new macadamia orchards.

The country’s largest agricultural REIT, managed by Rural Funds Management, reported full-year earnings (or adjusted funds from operations) slightly ahead of guidance at 11.9¢ per security. The result was down 12 per cent on the prior year as property revenue dipped following the sale of a NSW almond orchard and its poultry farms.