$100m worth of Queensland horticulture farms are for sale
The world’s largest macadamia growers are selling a $70m portfolio as two substantial horticulture farms hit the market.
More than $100 million worth of Queensland horticultural assets have hit the market, with the world’s largest macadamia growers selling a $70m slice of their expansive holdings.
Gemfields portfolio (4386ha) and Elliot River Horticulture portfolio (667ha) have been listed for sale by two separate farming families, and could fetch about $100m combined.
The Zadro family, who grow macadamia’s in northern NSW, Queensland and South Africa, are selling their Gemfields aggregation at Emerald.
The two non-contiguous landholdings Gemfields (779ha) and Cypress and Bauhinias (3607ha) are expected to attract the interest of institutional investors and family enterprises as Australia’s nut industry continues to boom.
The Gemfields portfolio has been listed for sale months after the adjoining $120m Cowal Agriculture portfolio hit the market in November last year.
The Zadro family own and run Saratoga Holdings, the world’s largest macadamia producers, and started farming the nuts in Australia about 40 years ago.
Further south, the Elliot River Horticulture Portfolio, located near Bundaberg has been listed for sale.
The large-scale vegetable farm produces capsicums, tomatoes and zucchinis and is expected to receive offers of $30m-plus.
LAWD in conjunction with Ray White Bundaberg are selling the properties via expressions of interest.
LAWD senior director Danny Thomas said the institutional investor demand for A-grade horticulture ventures has strengthened recently.
“Over the past 15 years, there has been a rapid institutionalisation of the horticulture sector,” Mr Thomas said.
“Like the Gemfields and Elliot River vendors, there have been a number of second and third generation families who have built extraordinary, high-value cropping assets which are currently in strong demand.”
Gemfields is supported by 6090ML of Medium Priority water allocations delivered through a high-quality irrigation network while Elliot River’s irrigation water is sourced from 296ML unsupplemented water allocations and 70ML of irrigation water licences.
At Gemfields there is a 455ha macadamia orchard while cotton and cereal crops are also produced.
The property is also being marketed with the potential for further development with 916ha of plantable land suitable for macadamia, pecan, citrus or table grapes and the possibility for increasing the flood irrigation area for cotton production.
Meanwhile at Elliott, the 667ha portfolio has the potential for an institutional scale macadamia orchard development.
There has been significant movement in the macadamia market recently,
including Macadamia Enterprises listing their 390ha Bundaberg orchard for sale for about $70m earlier this year.
An Australian nut giant, Stahmann Webster, backed by Canada’s PSP Investments, also has existing farms at Bundaberg in Queensland.
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