GoFARM launches $120m NSW Riverina expansion

A Hong Kong company has sold 700ha near Griffith to goFARM Australia, which has acquired two other farms and a 5000ML water portfolio.

One of Australia’s largest agricultural investors and developers, goFARM Australia, has added to its $1.1 billion portfolio, embarking on a $120 million almond-growing expansion in the NSW Riverina.

Backed by fruit and vegie king Robert Costa, managing director Liam Lenaghan and several high-net family offices, goFARM has snapped up 1758ha across three properties near Griffith, including the 700ha Stephendale vineyard at Yenda.

Stephendale has been offloaded by Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed CK Life Sciences, which is backed by Hong Kong’s richest person Li Ka-shing and is Australia’s second-largest vineyard owner via its $1.2 billion Australian agricultural portfolio.

Since the acquisition, goFARM has removed about a third of the 629ha of planted vines on the property, with the first trees to be planted in July next year and the balance to be planted in July 2025.

goFARM has also purchased the Schembri family’s 585ha home block, which was a cotton and melon farm. The Schembri family have since relocated to Mataranka in the Northern Territory.

Mr Lenaghan said the $120 million fund covered the acquisition of the three properties, 5000 megalitres of high and general security water entitlements in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and redevelopment costs.

goFarm managing director Liam Lenaghan. Picture: Aaron Francis

“The Stephendale vineyard is an institutional grade asset, but it was just growing the wrong crop. We also know there has been some distress for warm climate grapes particularly in red grapes,” Mr Lenaghan said.

“We have a view that the lower Murray region is becoming increasingly constrained and these farms are the start of building out that exposure above the Choke and in the Murrumbidgee region.”

Almond production in Australia had boomed during the past decade or so, but unfavourable seasonal conditions saw poor crops in 2022 and 2023, with prices falling to a 10-year low last year.

However, the sector has a much more favourable outlook for next season with the 2024-25 crop forecast to be almost 60 per cent higher than the current season’s official intake of about 103,000 tonnes.

“It’ll be three years until the first harvest and it will take about seven years until the orchards reach maturity. Good things come to those who wait,” Mr Lenaghan said.

“This is a long-term investment of 20-plus years exposure. While the market is low at present, the fundamentals for almonds remain compelling.

“The consumer demand for almonds is there and in California, who produce 80 per cent of the global market, water reform and regulation is going to add to their cost of production which will affect almond prices globally.”