Farmland as an Inflation Hedge

US total debt to GDP - the aim will be to inflate this debt away

In looking at the rationale for farmland as an investment, we have just came across a pretty scary chart below on the total debt to GDP in the United States.  The discussion always centers around government debt, but debt in all areas of the economy is off the charts.

How could this debt possibly be serviced?  The answer is, it cannot be, at least in any rational sense of the word.  We believe that governments will do what they have always done, which is to lower debt by printing additional money - probably through Quantitative Easing (QE) or some similar method - which will lower the real (as opposed to nominal value) of this debt. We would argue therefore that looking at farmland as a hedge against inflation makes a lot of sense.  

As a "hard asset", and investment in farm land in land will will not only provide investors this inflation hedge, but also offer a steady stream of good dividend income and offering excellent upside potential for capital gains due to the ongoing agricultural "super cycle" as coined by noted farmland and commodities investor Jim Rogers.

If you are interested to learn more about our unique, high dividend African farmland and European farmland investments, please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com.

Additional Information on Global Farmland Funds by Institutional Investors

Retail investors can now invest in farmland just like AP2

Following-up on previous posts here and here, we have also come across yet more cases of pension funds investing in farmland.   The Second Swedish National Pension Fund (AP2) will invest $250 million in a joint venture with US pension fund TIAA-Cref.  AP2 has invested the money into a newly formed company that has joint venture partner, TIAA-CREF, as its majority shareholder and administrator.  TIAA-CREF already has extensive agriculture investments worth more than $2 billion, which include 400 farms globally.  From an article in the website Top 1000 Funds:

" TIAA's strategy for its' agricultural investments involves targeting growth crops that include corn, soybeans, sugar, apples, cranberries and wine grapes....The AP2/TIAA-CREF investment is to focus primarily on grain production.  Last year the fund made its first foray into forestry and farmland, buying assets in the United States and Australia.

In recent years, a number of pension funds have looked to real assets such as timber and farmland to provide an alternative investment that is not correlated to the markets.  These investments are also seen as a potentially attractive option in hedging inflation risk."

So, how can a retail investor invest in farmland?? The farmland investments that large pension funds make are obviously not available to individuals.  As a result of a number of innovations, it is now possible for retail investors to access the farmland asset class by owning farmland directly.

GreenWorld is proud to offer the following agricultural land investment:

African Farmland

European Farmland

Australian Farmland

Please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com if you might be interested to discuss further.

How to Generate Income From Farmland Investments By Capitalizing On the Need for Increased Global Food Production

Shrinking arable land - rising population

In a previous post, we discussed how arable land globally is shrinking, whilst population skyrockets. The world is set to add another billion people, whilst we are simultaneously losing 75 million acres of farmland per year through degradation, industrialization or development. That is a stunning figure, and presages serious crises in the future around food and farmland. Indeed, it may not be going too far to say that farmland may be the "new gold", an asset with the ultimate value.

That’s why private equity hedge funds are purchasing large tracts of land to profit from the macro trend of shrinking arable farmland. Money managers such as Jim Rogers are setting up farmland funds left and right, and institutional investors are purchasing these farmland funds in droves. Its' very simple really - when you have an asset that is shrinking in quantity whilst increasing in demand, the price trend over the long-term is sure to be up!

The great thing about farmland is that its' an investment where you can own an asset of true economic value, and, in a world of near-zero yield, generate additional income.  Whilst every farmland fund or investment we at GreenWorld are aware of targets institutional investors, GreenWorld is pioneering the development of farmland investing projects that specifically target individual investors.  So yes, if you are worried about generation income, and looking for an asset that is not correlated to stocks, then you have the opportunity to invest in farmland just like institutional investors.  Best of all, our projects have low minimum investing requirements, and are purely passive investments where the project manager does everything from planting, to harvesting to the sale of the crops all for you.  We have farmland investing opportunities in EUROPE, AFRICA and AUSTRALIA.  Please contact us to learn more at info@greenworldbvi.com.

Another Large Investor Creates a Farmland Fund

Institutional investors continue to establish farmland funds

Following up from our previous post on institutional investors investing in farmland, GreenWorld have also discovered that Schroders Plc, the U.K.'s largest publicly traded money manager, developed a 250 million-pound ($480 million) farmland investment fund to invest in farmland around the globe, as prices for agricultural land have continuously risen along with with gains in the underlying commodity prices such as wheat.

Farmland is enjoying its biggest revival in 40 years as investors including Jim Rogers, George Soros and TIAA-Cref bet that farmland as an investment will offer high dividends, appreciation in the price of the farmland, and an excellent way to hedge against possible future inflation due to QE and all of the new money printed.

GreenWorld is proud to offer the following agricultural land investment:

African Farmland

European Farmland

Australian Farmland

Please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com if you might be interested to discuss further.

GreenWorld's High Yielding African Farmland Investment Continues to See High Demand

As interest rates continue to stay at rock bottom levels in the West, investors are increasingly turning to alternative investments such as farmland to obtain higher yields then those available in traditional savings accounts.  GreenWorld's farmland investment in Africa has continued to see high levels of demand due to this trend.  For those who may be interested, below is a summary of the african farmland project:

1)  Invest from as little as £11,250 for five acres.  Smaller investment levels may be possible in some circumstances.

2)  Estimated 12-15% annual dividend income income  In fact, the last harvest produced an average return of 14% on investment.

3)  A tangible asset held in your own name removing any default risk.  Investors will own the lease to their land – and be allocated their own field providing the investor with security.

4)  A project that is supported and accredited by the Sierra Leone government at the highest levels.

5)  So far, 1,200 acres have been cultivated.  The land is ideal for rice production but is underdeveloped and high yield farming has not been utilised in the past.  The introduction of advanced agricultural technologies has now dramatically increased the productivity - and profitability - of this farmland.

6)  The project is committed to assisting the local population through employment, food, health and education support.

7)  ALL - repeat ALL - of the rice crop is sold locally, thereby providing food security in Sierra Leone.

Please contact us at at info@greenworldbvi.com to learn more.

Wheat Farmland Investment in Central and Eastern Europe - Great Dividends and an Excellent Hedge Against Inflation

For retail investors who remain worried about the affects of the Eurozone crisis and the potential inflationary affects of QE, now is a great time to consider farmland investments.  Farmland offers stability in times of global stress, it generally pays good dividends, and as a "hard asset" farmland is an ideal hedge against inflation and QE. So, what options do retail investors have to invest in farmland?  

We ate Green World would humbly suggest that you consider our farmland investment in Europe in wheat farmland.  The wheat crop in Russia is down, Canada is down, the US is down, meaning that wheat prices have continued their upwards trend.  Whilst one could invest in a wheat ETF (there is a pure wheat ETF on the London Stock Exchange), we at GreenWorld believe this is a big mistake as these ETFs fluctuate widely as they are manipulated by commodity brokers.  On top of that, most ETFs are issued by large banks, and, well, one must ask oneself at this point how much exposure do you really want to the banks right now??

Our European farmland investment is located in the new EU country of Lithuania.   There are some large institutional investors putting hundreds of millions of Euros into central and eastern European farmland, but of course these options are off limits to individual investors.  Why consider our farmland investment in central and eastern Europe in Lithuania?:

1)  GreenWorld's Lithuanian farmland investment is in a long time existing, large and profitable farm, meaning there is no need to cultivate new land which means less delay in your investment producing dividends. 

2) Lithuanian farmland is barely half the price of farmland in the surrounding Nordic countries, and as Lithuania and other EU countries continue to grow, prices of farmland there will gradually converge with the older EU countries.  From a longer-term capital gains perspective, this means that a 100% increase in farmland prices needed to raise land values in Lithuania in line with other core EU countries.  

3) Finally, if you are searching for secure dividends and income in a low yield environment, our European farmland investment just paid a 10% dividend yield.

If you are an individual investor and are interested to access the farmland investing asset class directly, please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com

Pension Funds Are Turning to Farmland as an Alternative Investment

Pension funds are investing in farmland

According to an article in the online investing magazine INVEZZ, UK pension funds are increasingly turning to agriculture and farmland, as well as other alternative investment.  The article notes that pension funds are increasingly turning to commodity "real asset investments":

Investments in alternative commodity assets, such as timber investments, farmland investments, agriculture and energy projects, are gaining popularity amongst UK pension funds seeking portfolio diversification, Simon Fox, a principal in Mercer's investment consulting business, said for Reuters. According to him, the global financial crisis in 2008/2009, which caused significant losses in equity-heavy portfolios, marked the turning point for pension funds and spurred them to seek portfolio diversification. Seeking alternative investment options, clients of the consultantcy firm were introduced to real assets and commodities which have since started increasing in popularity.

This is good news for investors who are considering investing in farmland, as it proves that farmland as an investment is on a upward trend globally, not only by individual high-net worth investors but by large big money institutional investors as well.  For retail investors in GreenWorld's farmland projects, this mean there is the opportunity to be on the right side of a global trend. GreenWorld is proud to offer the following agricultural land investment:

African Farmland

European Farmland

Australian Farmland

Please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com if you might be interested to discuss further.

With all of the Massive QE, It Would be Wise to Hedge Against Inflation With "Real Assets". Consider Farmland As An Inflation Hedge - Its' Jim Rogers' Favorite Asset!

Alternative investments hedge against inflationary QE

It is by now indisputably clear that central banks globally have printed unprecedented amounts of new money through QE. So why have we not seen sky high inflation yet? The reason we haven't seen rapid price inflation is that people are still squirreling away Pounds, Euros and Dollars because they're still very worried about the prospects for the economy.  The quote below is a summary from a firm called Casey Research:

Sooner or later, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank will have created so much new paper fiat currency through QE that people will start to question the value of these paper fiat currencies.  At that point, the urge to buy –whether it's capital goods or consumer goods or commodities – will revive the economy, and the recession will come to an end. That will reduce the level of caution people feel to something near normal. The result will be that all of the excess money that has been created since 2008 will come pouring out. For a little while it will look like happy days are here again – the economy will seem to be booming. But then the excess cash will set off hair-curling price inflation. 

This is why GreenWorld have long argued that everyone should have at least some small portion of real assets in their portfolios - non-financial assets that have real economic value, cannot be printed and are finite in quantity.  While many run to Gold, the thing we at GreenWorld argue is that Gold pays no income and has no inherent economic value, i.e. you cannot eat it or build anything with it.  From our perspective, the best of the alternative investments is farmland.  Farmland pays regular income; it is a real, tangible asset; and it plays the macro trend of shrinking arable land and rising global population.  All that, plus legendary commodities investor Jim Rogers is a huge fan of agricultural investments as well!

To look at GreenWorld's three farmland investments in Africa, Europe or Australia, please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com.

How to Invest in Farmland?

The macro case for farmland investment is quite clear

Let's say you want to invest in farmland like Jim Rogers.  You may also have noticed that farmland investing has also become a huge trend among large institutional investors such as pension funds.  What would be the next steps?  As we have mentioned previously, Jim Rogers is involved with a couple of farmland investment funds, but even if you are a big fan of Jim's like we at GreenWorld are, these farmland funds are targeted at the very wealthy, with minimum investment requirements no doubt in the hundreds of thousands.

The good news is, as we have discussed previously, in just the last two years a number of options have been developed for individuals. The most common is to pool a number of individual investors' capital together to purchase a large parcel of land, and then divide it into individual freehold parcels. Farmland investments for individuals generally pay a regular yearly dividend from the sale of crops, and also provide the opportunity for long-term capital gains as farmland continues to increase in value.  

The nice thing about this approach is that it also provides retail investors direct ownership of farmland.  There is no hedge fund with its' high fees involved, nor any financial fund with stocks or loans or other risky assets.  You as the investor can own high quality farmland in emerging markets such as Africa or Eastern Europe.  Dividends so far in these projects have averaged between 10% - 16%, and the we have already seen appreciation in the value of the underlying farmland.  If you are interested to pursue these further, GreenWorld has investing options in African farmland and European farmland.  Please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com for more information!

Farmland Hedge Fund Versus Direct Ownership of Farmland

Farmland - an excellent high yield investment

We recently came across some very interesting information about a London private equity firm called Emergent.  What was interesting was that Emergent has an African farmland fund.  It sounds great - BUT, the catch is that the minimum investment in this farmland fund is €500,000, which puts it off limits except to the very rich.

Luckily, however, for those "little guys" interested in investing in farmland there are now options available.  GreenWorld's African farmland project has a minimum investment of only £1,950, making it easily accessible for individuals to invest into.  Furthermore, our African farmland investment involves direct ownership of farmland, rather then being a hedge fund like that from Emergent.  Like most hedge funds, Emergent charges 2% of the assets under management plus 20% of the profits, meaning the Emergent farmland fund must produce superior returns to provide a reasonable profit.  GreenWorld's African farmland investment involves direct ownership of the land, however, and there are no other additional fees.  We may be a bit biased, but we believe our structure is better!  Feel free to read more about our farmland investment in Africa, as well as our European farmland investment - contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com to discuss further!

GreenWorld's Farmland Investment in Europe - High Dividend Of 10%

Invest in rich Lithuanian wheat farmland

GreenWorld is very pleased to announce that our farmland investment in the new EU country of Lithuania just paid out its' first dividend.  It was a nice, high dividend of 10%, and we expect these excellent returns to continue.

• Farmland is a solid, relatively recession-proof asset (everyone needs to eat) that leverages the global trends of high agriculture commodity prices and shrinking arable land globally.
• Profitable track record.
• This NOT a new project, but rather an investment in an existing farmland with outstanding local managers and a 10 year track record of success.
• 100% increase in farmland prices needed to raise land values in Lithuania in line with other core EU countries.
• Fertile farmland in a Baltic state with full EU membership.
• Many economists believe higher food prices are now unavoidable.
• Capital growth potential from prime farmland that we believe is significantly undervalued.
• Double-digit return prospects on working capital.
• And, world famous commodities investor Jim Rogers is a huge proponent of farmland as an investment!

If you want to learn more our farmland investment in Europe, please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com

Farmland Investments Justified By Continued High Food Prices

High wheat prices benefit GreenWorld's Lithuanian farmland investment

It looks like the price of wheat continues to remain high.  Just recently Egypt, the world's top importer, made its biggest order for wheat in years, agreeing to import 1.25 tonnes.  As you can see from the chart at right, wheat prices have continued to be on a strong upwards trend.

In our view, this continues to justify Jim Rogers' view that agriculture and farmland investments will be the commodity to be in for the next decade.  Luckily, GreenWorld has an excellent project for small retail investors to access that takes advantage of the high price of wheat and other grains.

This is our investment in European farmland.  Our farmland investment in Europe is located in the new EU country of Lithuania.  Prices of farmland in the new EU Baltic countries are only about half those in the neighboring Nordic countries.  This means there is substantial upside scope for capital gains in this Lithuanian investment.  On top of that, our European farmland investment is an excellent option for a high dividen d yield, as it just recently paid a dividend of 10%.  

Please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com if you are interested in adding farmland to your investment portfolio.

Farmland Investments Will Provide High Dividend Yields as Food Prices Soar

High food prices=High Yield Farmland Investments

Global food prices were up a full 10% in July.  Really, the equation on food prices is quite simple.  Global population continues to rise.  Its' just gone past 7 billion and will hit at least 9 billion by 2050.  Meanwhile, for a variety of reasons (mostly due to development and climate), arable land is shrinking.  This means, more food needs to be grown on less farmland, full stop.  From a macro perspective, this no doubt makes agriculture and farmland investments one of the great investment opportunities of the next decade.  Indeed, the high food prices are tied to the high price of agricultural commodity crops such as wheat, and the high price for the crops mean that the underlying farmland investments will yield quite high dividends.   

Not surprisingly, there has been a huge amount of institutional money flowing into farmland, even as far afoot as places like Africa, as that continent possesses 60pc of the world's unused arable land.  In addition, we have also observed famously successful investors such as George Soros and Jim Rogers investing in farmland.  Jim Rogers in fact has opened a number of farmland funds.  Whilst Rogers' farmland funds are targeted at high net worth and institutional investors, GreenWorld is pleased to offer farmland invests to retail investors.  For those who are looking for high yielding investments, farmland is the perfect option!  Below are GreenWorld's three farmland investment options - please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com for additional information!

Farmland investment in Africa

Farmland investment in Europe

Farmland investment in Australia

Good News for Jim Rogers' Australian Farmland Fund - And Also for GreenWorld's Australian Farmland Investment

Australian Farmland - Now Available for Retail Investors

As unpredictable weather continues to bedevil the world's key wheat producing regions, analysts increasingly expect wheat prices to soar.  This is excellent news for the Jim Rogers Australian farmland fund.  

We at GreenWorld are longtime huge fans of Rogers and believe his analysis on agriculture investments to spot on.  Of course, like all farmland investment funds, Rogers Australian fund is targeted at high net worth individuals.  GreenWorld, however, affords retail investors the opportunity to invest in farmland exactly like Jim Rogers'.  Our Australian farmland project is targeted at retail investors, with a minimum investment requirement of only £20,000.  The project targets yearly dividends of approximately 9%, and also offers excellent upside potential for capital gains.  In fact, we have two agricultural land investments producing wheat as the primary crop:

Australian Farmland

European Farmland

GreenWorld's European Farmland Investment To Benefit As Wheat Prices Soar

Farmland investments - like Gold but with a real dividend!

For those interested in farmland investments, it is well worth considering that the price of wheat is continuing to soar.  As this article notes, wheat prices continue to stay high.  Of course, one can always invest in an ETF that tries to track the price of wheat or other grain commodities.  However, these ETF are subject to extraordinary manipulation, and as financial assets also involve real risk involved in the solvency of the bank behind the ETF offering.  

As we have noted in a previous post, the best way to play the high price of agricultural commodities such as wheat is through investments in farmland.  Luckily, GreenWorld has an excellent new wheat farmland investment in Europe to play this trend.  Our European farmland project is located in the new EU country of Lithuania, and the project just paid its first dividend yield to investors of 10%.  Farmland in Lithania is priced significantly below farmland in the neighboring Nordic countries, and as Lithuanian farmland prices gradually converge with those of the richer EU countries, our European farmland investment offers excellent upside potential for the increase in the capital value of your investment.  

The interest in this European farmland project has been extremely high and the number of acres available is limited, so if you are interested, please visit our website and contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com. 

Farmland Investments Driven by Countries' Concerns About Food Security

Hot dry climate drives UAE investment in farmland overseas

One thing we at GreenWorld have noticed is a trend the last several several years of countries becoming increasingly concerned with the issue of food security.  We already discussed in a previous post how China's concerns about food security are driving it to make huge purchases of farmland overseas in places like Australia (we also noted in a previous post how one of Jim Rogers" farmland investment funds focuses on Australian farmland).

Another country that is concerned about food security is the UAE in the Persian Gulf.  The amount of food consumed in the UAE is going up at a rate of 12 to 14 per cent per year, amidst rise in demand for food staples by around 30 per cent.  This makes UAE government officials extremely nervous.  The UAE is of course wealthy from its' oil reserves, but its extremely hot and dry climate is not conducive to agriculture. Hence, 80% of its' food is imported, which can put them at the mercy of geo-political events globally.  Just as an example, the UAE recently purchased 1.5 million acres of farmland in Africa in Ethiopia and Sudan and also in Eastern Europe to grow food for importation back to the UAE.

Needless to say, when huge amounts of money from countries like China and the UAE are going into purchasing agricultural land overseas, this will naturally push up the prices of farmland.  This makes GreenWorld's farmland investment in Africa and farmland investment in Europe in Lithuania a great way to allow an individual investor an opportunity to benefit from this global trend.

If you would like to discuss the opportunities open to you as a retail investor to participate in these projects, please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com.

     

Jim Rogers: "If You Want to Get Rich, Invest in Farmland"

Jim Rogers runs his own farmland funds

As we have noted a number of times on this blog, the legendary Jim Rogers has long been a major advocate of farmland investing - you can review a couple of our posts on Rogers and farmland here and here.  In a recent article on the website Money Morning, the subject of Jim Rogers and farmland was again highlighted.

The article notes that Rogers believes the farmland investment story is still "only in the thired inning", and has a long way left to run.   Rogers is also quoted in the article saying as follows:

"It's the farmers, the producers, who are going to be in the captain's seat when the prices go through the roof."

What we at GreenWorld like about Rogers' advocacy of agricultural land is he is not just advising on it, but also putting his own money into the asset class through two farmland investment funds, including one farmland fund in Australia.  Luckily for individuals, there are now opportunities to invest directly in farmland themselves, as a number of unique projects have opened up globally for retail investors in farmland.  GreenWorld is proud to be part of this trend, as we offer the following three farmland investments:

African farmland investment
European farmland investment
Australian farmland investment

Here is the link to the Money Morning article on Jim Rogers and farmland.  Please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com for additional information in how you can participate in these projects. 

The Next Big Commodities Boom: Australian Agriculture and Farmland Investments

Undervalued Australian Farmland

As we have noted in a number of previous posts such as this one, we have long believed that Australian farmland is one of the great undervalued investments available in 2012.  Legendary investor Jim Rogers, a huge proponent of farmland as an alternative agriculture investment, also clearly believes in the Australian agriculture story.

It is always good to see validation of one's views, and so here is an article from a major financial site entitled "Food: The Next Commodities Boom for Australia".  The article basically lays out how Australian agriculture is joining energy and mining as another booming  commodities sector in Australia.  As the article notes, the boom in Australian agriculture is partially driven by demand in China due to the shrinkage of Chinese arable farmland.  For those interested in better understanding the connection between the loss of arable land and the increasing value of farmland, here is an article we recently published on Technorati.

If you are interested in considering Australian farmland as an investment, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com.

Jim Rogers Offers Two Farmland Funds - Now Retail Investors Can Also Invest in Farmland

Jim Rogers is involved with two farmland funds

Anyone who is interested in agriculture and farmland as investments will surely be familiar with the legendary Jim Rogers.  Jim as anyone knows is a huge proponent of agriculture investments.  Jim Rogers is also involved with a number of farmland funds, including one directed at Australian farmland.  Unfortunately, unless you are an extremely high net-worth investor and/or run institutional investments, Jim Rogers' Australian farmland funds will be off limits.

However, due to increasing popularity of farmland as an asset class, the market has slowly developed to the point where there are some opportunities for retail investors to own farmland directly - i.e. you can be a mini Jim Rogers!  We at GreenWorld are in the forefront of this innovation, as we have been involved with three agricultural land projects that are specifically targeted at individuals rather than institutions.  For those interested, here are GreenWorld's three farmland investment options.  Contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com for more details!

European farmland investment

African farmland investment

Australian farmland investment

Australian Farmland and Agriculture Booming

Jim Rogers speaks in China on Investing in Australian Farmland

As we have mentioned earlier, we believe that Australian farmland is one of the best investing opportunities in the world of commodities today.  For a review of why this is the case, please review our earlier blog post.
Now we have a  high profile investing site that feels the same way.  In an article entitled "Food - The Next Commodities Boom for Australia, the global investing website CNBC notes that Australian agriculture agriculture is the next big Australian commodity that will boom.


As our earlier blog post above noted, a number of large investors, including famous commodities investor Jim Rogers, have been buying into Australian farmland.  With the price of farmland in Australia only a fraction of that in the US and Europe, farmland is a fantastic way to access the Australian agriculture sector.  GreenWorld offers a wheat farmland investment in Australia, which allows individual investors to follow a legend like Jim Rogers into the asset class.


To read more about this investment as well as see the CNBC article on Australian agriculture, please visit our website and the information on our Australian farmland investment.

Feel free to contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com for additional information on how and why you might want to invest in this project.

Purchase of Rice Proof of the Long Term Value of African Farmland Investment

African farmland investment  benefits from high price for rice

There was good news out of the Middle East for those interested in farmland investment opportunities in Africa.  As this story shows, Iraq recently purchased 100,000 tons of rice on the world market.  This indicates continued demand for one of the world's food staples.

From our perspective, this is very good news for GreenWorld's African farmland project.  Our farmland investment in Africa is located in the country of Sierra Leone, and the main crop is rice.  The low price of African agricultural land means that the yearly dividends from the sale of the rice crop have the potential to be extremely high.  The target yearly dividend in fact is 15%.  The project paid out a 16.2% dividend last year, and looks to pay out just around 15% this year.

Contact info@greenworldbvi.com if you are interested in this unique farmland investment opportunity.

More information on Hedging Against Inflation - Again, Consider Agriculture and Farmland Investments

European farmland investments - an ideal hedge against inflation

There have been a number of articles arguing that one way to hedge against inflation is to use Inflation linked bonds.  That is one option, but if you as an investor do that you are still subjecting yourself to credit risk from the government and your investment will still fluctuate daily in the bond market.

As we have suggested a number of times before - most recently in this post here - we believe agriculture investments are a far better way to hedge against inflation.  Like legendary investor Jim Rogers, we believe farmland investments are the ideal inflation hedge.  Farmland investments have a high positive correlation to inflation - and indeed farmland is often described as "gold with yield" - which is why Jim Rogers frequently advocates farmland as an investment.  Jim Rogers that the agriculture investments sector will be the place to be in the decades ahead, especially as we run out of farmers.  

Whilst many people believe that only large institutional investors can access the farmland access class, as we explained earlier it is now possible for individuals to invest in farmland as well!  To learn more about GreenWorld's options for investing in farmland, please contact us at info@greenworldbvi.com or ring us on  +44-20-3286-2975.  GreenWorld offers two new agricultural land investments, our farmland investment in Europe and our African farmland investment

Another Reason to Follow Jim Rogers into Alternative Agriculture Investments - Soaring Food Prices

Investment in farmland justified by high food prices

As we have noted in a number of previous posts - including here and here -  our all time favorite investor Jim Rogers has frequently opined on the fantastic long-term growth prospects of agriculture and farmland investments.  For those who need more convincing, consider the long term trend in global food prices.

After remaining largely flat from 1990 - 2005, they have exploded the last few years and we at GreenWorld continue to expect them to trend higher.  From a political perspective, an unfortunate side effect of high food prices has been political instability in many developing countries, as citizens demand that their governments' solve this problem.  From an investing perspective however, savvy investors who look at global macro trends can easily see that this situation offers a powerful rationale for investing in agriculture and farmland.  For those interested in following Jim Rogers into farmland investments, GreenWorld have recently launched two new agricultural land investments, our farmland investment in Europe and our African farmland investment. 

Use Farmland Investing as an Inflation Hedge as a Major Financial Magazine Calls for ECB to Print Euros

In our previous post, we noted that investors should consider using farmland as a hedge against inflation.  Now, we see a major financial magazine in the US explicitly calling for the ECB to print Euros.   This is actually pretty scary stuff in our opinion, especially if you consider the already swollen ECB balance sheet below.  As we noted previously, Jim Rogers loves farmland investments as an inflation hedge, and we at GreenWorld believe that this same option for using farmland as alternative agriculture investments should be available to retail investors.  If you want to pursue this option, consider one of GreenWorld's farmland investing options: African Farmland Investment or European Farmland Investment in Lithuania.

European Central Bank has already printed huge amounts of new money - make sure to hedge against inflation

 

Farmland as an Investment to Hedge Against Inflation

In looking for a reason that farmland as an investment makes good sense, consider the graph below.  As is clearly seen, the balance sheets of central banks have trended steadily upwards that last few years.  It seems inevitable that at some point all of this newly created money will enter the real economy.  Farmland investments provide an excellent way to hedge against inflation, as farmland is a real, tangible asset, and no more of it can be be printed into existence by central banks.  As we discussed in our post introducing farmland as an investment, we pointed out that in addition to acting as an excellent inflation hedge, farmland also provides regular income and is an excellent way to play the continued high prices of agricultural commodities.  Whilst investments in farmland have previously been limited to institutional investors, as we pointed out in a previous post on this blog, it is now possible for retail investors to invest in farmland too!

Jim Rogers: "If you're smart, put your money into anything related to agriculture"

Jim Rogers in UAE - Buy Agriculture and Farmland

Jim Rogers was in the UAE recently, and he recently gave an interview with the newspaper Gulf News.  Once again, Jim Rogers turned to agriculture and farmland investments as his top recommendation.  In his typical fashion, Jim Rogers again noted that agriculture and farmland as an investment is a great value:

"Nobody wants to farm any more. Yet there are more people than even now. Seven billion of us....Fewer and fewer people are producing more and more food for more and more of us. That's only going to get worse over the next 20 or 30 years. So if you're smart, put your money into anything related to agriculture."

Not surprisingly, there have been a number of farmland investment funds opened recently (see yesterday's post on the newest farmland fund launched), as institutional investors pile into the asset class.  There are also agricultural farmland investments open to individuals now.

New Farmland Investment Fund "The Future of Institutional Investing" - Institutional Investor Magazine

Swedish farmland fund investor AP2

We recently came across a very interesting article in the magazine Institutional Investor.  The article, written by a senior research associate at Oxford University, notes that the huge pension fund in TIAA-CREF in the United States has recently launched a new farmland investment fund called TIAA-CREF Global Agriculture.  The fund is capitalized by a number of large Canadian and European institutional investors, including AP2 in Sweden, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC) in Canada, and  Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (Caisse) in Canada. 


What we found interesting is that one of the areas where the new fund will invest is in Australian farmland, which makes sense from our perspective as GreenWorld have long seen fantastic value in Australian agriculture investments, which we discussed in a previous post.  As our previous post notes, long time agriculture and farmland investor Jim Rogers also has a farmland fund company focused on Australian farming and agricultural land.

Whilst the TIAA and the Jim Rogers farmland funds are obviously focused on huge institutional investors, GreenWorld's projects - such as our farmland investment in Lithuania in Eastern Europe and our African farmland investment - have low enough minimums that they are easily accessible by individual investors.  For those with UK SIPPs, all of GreenWorld's farmland investments are SIPP eligible.

For those interested, here is the link to the article for the new TIAA farmland fund.