The fund will be mandated by its trust deed to invest in farms supplying milk and those where the supplier intends to move from another dairy processor. The trust could be ready to start investing in dairy farms by October this year.

Agricultural land needs a different model to access long patient pension fund capital with a 30 year horizon. There has been a gap in the market for long dated equity for farmers.

The farmer would generally maintain a majority stake to retain farm ownership in the hands of suppliers and to ensure the farmer is motivated to generate a return for the trust investors.

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The fund will allow farmers to focus on what they do best, producing high quality milk without having to worry about trying to be investment bankers.

Milk supply in Australia

Milk supply in Australia, which was declining for the last 10 years, has turned around to start growing by 2-3% in the last 2 years. The availability of longer term finance will enable growth of 5-6% to take place over the next 2-3 years. This will help farmers grow to their potential in order to increase production for export to China after the countries signed the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement last November.

The trust could help New Zealand based Fonterra, second biggest dairy processor in Australia, to win farmers of rivals such as Murray Goulburn and Bega Cheese.