Farmland and timberland are now separate asset classes, the UK's Pension Protection Fund has asserted in its revised investment principles.

Une trentaine d’organisations accusent des banques de soutenir le Groupe Bolloré par leurs concours financiers et leur silence, face aux accusations de violations des droits humains dénoncés par le Conseil d’Éthique du Fonds de pension norvégien dans les plantations de sa filiale, la Société financière des Caoutchoucs (Socfin), au Cameroun.

Investors expected to attend the Global AgInvesting event include APG Asset Management, one of Europe’s largest pension investors, Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank.

Farmland grabs by US companies and pension funds are being ignored as appropriators prioritise keeping Chinese interests in check, critics say

"All of a sudden the world is waking up and saying, 'Wow, emerging markets, food security... this asset class is going to really perform in the medium term -- the next 8-20 years,'" says new convert James Howard, manager of the Futuregrowth Agri-Fund

The Warakirri Diversified Agriculture Fund invests in agricultural assets on behalf of Australian, Canadian and European pension funds, as well as high net-worth individuals and private family offices.

Investment managers in the US report rising interest from pension schemes and retail investors in funds that buy and run farmland in developed countries.

Today's emerging new farm owners are private equity fund managers, specialised farmland fund operators, hedge funds, pension funds, big banks and the like.

The Covid-19 pandemic and a general trend towards ESG investing are pushing more institutional investors, particularly pension funds, to look more closely at farmland investments.

Pension funds try to adopt a sustainability perspective when investing in farmland abroad, but there is not much consensus on what it means and how to measure it.

Major farmland investors such as banks and pension funds must stop facilitating land grabs, civil society groups on the eve of a global farmland investment conference in London on December 3-5, have said.

PSP, one of Canada's largest pension investment managers, now adds a further 40,000 hectares to its large farmland holdings in New South Wales.

Posco International’s new zero deforestation policy comes after years of pressure from NGOs and the divestment of its shares by Dutch and Norwegian pension funds.

The entire portfolio, including 18,250 megalitres of water entitlements, would be of interest to pension and sovereign wealth funds from Europe, the Middle East or North America, said sources with knowledge of the sale who were not authorised to speak publicly.

In 2013, mammoth US investment company TIAA-CREF gave $5 million to the University of Illinois to fund a research center, branded with the company’s name, that would explore the financial niche of farmland investment.

Canadian investors - particularly pension funds - have led the way in changing Australian city money attitudes to agriculture.

Many of the world’s biggest pension funds as well as family offices of wealthy individuals –looking for diversification and steady returns in times of market volatility– have been pouring money into farmlands, writes Kelvins Tan

Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board has made another move to deepen its presence in Australian agriculture, taking full ownership of the largest irrigated farmer in Australia.

New Hampshire-based Conservation Resources has teamed up with Dutch asset manager Achmea Investment Management on a farmland investment fund, Conservation Resources Farmland II, its second North American farmland fund

Interested buyers for the company with beef, sheep and crop farms on 28 pastoral businesses across 4.4 million hectares include Canadian pension funds, US-based institutional investors and institutional investors from continental Europe and high net worth investors.

This year Rabo Farm's first fund, with a size of € 315 million, will be fully subscribed, and a new fund, the Rabo Farm Europe Fund II, will be launched.

Mark Wiseman, chief executive of the $A170 billion fund, will visit Australia this month amid the group’s expanding portfolio of interests across the Tasman.

SLC Agricola, the Brazil farm operator with large ambitions in farmland acquisition, sealed a $239m cash injection from UK fund manager Valiance Asset Management for a business aimed at turning scrub into "high-quality" farms.

WSIB has allocated a total of $400 million into a separate account with UBS Farmland Investors and a Homestead Capital USA Farmland Fund IV.

Daybreak Cropping, a partnership between Warakirri Asset Management and the Canadian Public Sector Pension Investment Board, paid $97 million for the 22,000 ha broadacre farm.

Foreign companies, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are ready and willing to invest in the Australian farm sector, but many parts of the industry are still not investment-ready.

Interest in farming from a new class of institutional investors — including hedge, endowment, pension, private equity and sovereign wealth funds — has surged.

Late on Wednesday night an Australian trust backed by Swiss, Danish and US fund managers agreed to pay more than $200 million for 12,000 hectares of almond groves in northern Victoria.

Despite all the hypocritical calls and posturing of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for ending hunger, they have facilitated, enabled, and led the global rush for landgrabs

The US university, through its endowment fund, maintains a business chain with Brazilian companies and its subsidiaries to circumvent Brazilian law, according to a report.