Biggest owners of Aussie farms revealed in new investigation
The biggest owners of Australian farms have been revealed in a new The Weekly Times investigation. And the foreign power players aren’t who you might think.
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Canadian cops, American college professors and Dutch public servants have emerged as the billion-dollar barons of Australian agriculture.
A special The Weekly Times investigation into who owns Australia’s farms can reveal the three biggest investors by value – Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board, Macquarie Agriculture and TIAA-CREF (Nuveen) – own 6.3 million hectares collectively and have an estimated $7.4 billion worth of local land, water and infrastructure assets under management.
PSP – which manages the superannuation of Canadian government workers, including the nation’s famed mounted police and armed services – leads the charge with assets valued at more than $3 billion.
In second place is the Australian-controlled Macquarie Agriculture funds of Paraway Pastoral Company, Lawson Grains and Viridis Ag, with about $2.7 billion in assets across a portfolio of properties spanning 4.7 million hectares.
Rounding out the top three is the New York-based Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America and College Retirement Equities Fund, which, through its subsidiary Nuveen, is the biggest investor in agriculture globally.
It has put together a portfolio of Australian land and water assets worth an estimated $1.7 billion.
The investigation shows both foreign and domestic investors are looking beyond the current coronavirus crisis, snapping up valuable farming land as agriculture positions itself well as a producer of staple products.
See the lists of the top 20 investors in Australian agriculture by value, and who owns almost 1000 of the nation’s farms.
The investigation is in AgJournal, Australia’s agribusiness magazine, which is published by The Weekly Times.
WHO OWNS OUR FARMS?