AFR | 23 July 2026
La Caisse pours $300m into Costa family-backed agriculture fund
Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood, Emma Rapaport and Angira Bharadwaj
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan acquired a controlling stake in potato-growing Mitolo Family Farms in 2023. PSP Investments acquired the majority of egg farm operator Ellerslie Free Range Farms last year. Now, Canada’s second-largest pension fund is getting in on the action.
Canadian pension funds have been after Australians farmland for some years.
Street Talk can reveal La Caisse and Costa family-backed agricultural investor Go.Farm are planting $330 million in a new agriculture platform focused on making investments in Australian horticulture. This raising is part of the same effort Go.Farm launched two years ago, as revealed by Street Talk.
Go.Farm is pitching in $30 million into the platform, La Caisse is adding $300 million, and the pair are seeking to raise $220 million in debt, hitting up the big four banks and agriculture lender Rabobank. La Caisse will also acquire a 20 per cent stake in Go.Farm as part of the deal.
The new fund will invest in Go.Farm’s existing projects – olive grove Dellapool and Sandmount North, an extension of the firm’s Sandmount Farms investment – as well as make new investments, chasing returns in the mid-teens.
Managing director Liam Lenaghan said the platform’s investment into Go.Farm’s existing projects are to grow the businesses rather than buy out existing investors.
“We’ll make commitments to a couple of seed assets, one being the Dellapool Property Trust, which is the former failed hazelnut development … which we’re transitioning to super high density olive production,” he said.
“[La Caisse] will also take a piece of Sandmount North, which is an investment vehicle that we’re operating in the Shepparton Cobram district, which is the transformation of old dairy country into horticultural assets.”
Go.Farm was founded in 2013 and has the backing of Costa Asset Management, the private investment arm of the Rich List Costa family. Turning around farming flops and finding the next fertile food bowls across Australia to beat climate-driven risks are a key part of Go.Farm’s strategy.
The partnership with La Caisse is the latest in a string of deals featuring Canada’s wealthy pension funds and local agribusinesses. In 2023, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan acquired a controlling stake in Mitolo Family Farms, the country’s largest potato-growing business and the operator of 26 farms in South Australia and NSW.
The following year, Canada’s PSP Investments paid $180 million to acquire majority ownership of egg farm operator Ellerslie Free Range Farms.