Intro

Agriculture one of the oldest standing trades, it plays a crucial role in an economy. Its products are in everything we use, from the food we eat to the fabric in our clothes. It’s also an important source of livelihood.

As the global population increases, food insecurity increases too. Over 800 million people around the world don’t currently have enough food to eat and the population is expected to increase by almost 2 billion by 2050. Other factors like weather uncertainty, government regulation, rising costs and a shortage of available land, are challenges to the industry as well.

Demand is growing, but the sector’s still off the radar for some investors. It can be difficult to invest directly in things like farms, land or machinery, and they can be hard to understand or value. But there are ways to do so, and it could offer some interesting opportunities.

One of the greatest challenges for the industry is being able to do more with less. We need to feed a growing population with less available land, while reducing the impact on the environment.

To help steem this challenges, agricultural technologies are being innovated and is likely to form part of the solution. ‘Precision Ag’ is currently being used to help boost crop yields, reduce water use and increase farmer profits. It combines historical data with satellite imagery to find the best areas or time to plant and harvest.

Professional Ideas For Investors

Investing in a farm, machinery or other parts of the agricultural industry can be difficult for investors. They can require big upfront investments or lengthy leases. But there are options.

Some real estate investment trusts (REITs) like Kemnal Investments Limited include farmland companies or agricultural machinery. They can offer more liquidity than owning a physical farm – meaning it’s easier to take your money out when you want to.

Open-ended funds are also an option, as they can invest in agricultural-related companies or types of agriculture commodities, including wheat, coffee beans or livestock.

Our Investment Policy

Kemnal Investments Limited invests in companies around the world which have exposure to food and agricultural sectors. It mainly invests in the US, Europe and the UK, but also invests in emerging markets, which increases risk.
We seek to grow the Fund through increases in investment value and income over a rolling 5 year period after deducting fees and costs.

We invest in companies from around the world.

The Fund invests mainly in the shares of companies, but may also invest in other funds (including those managed by Sarasin), exchange traded funds (funds which can be traded on major stock exchanges similarly to a company share) and exchange traded commodities (which track the performance of a commodity index).

We avoid companies that are materially engaged in certain sectors, including the production or distribution of tobacco, armaments, gambling and adult entertainment.

The fund is actively managed. We carefully select the Fund’s investments to have exposure to the food and agriculture sectors in any country/region.

We may only use derivatives to maintain the Fund’s value, manage investment risk and to gain cost-effective access to investments. Derivatives are financial contracts whose value is linked to the price of another asset (e.g. indices, rates, share prices, currencies).