Murray Goulburn has sourced $20m from a Scandinavian pension fund to purchase nine dairy farms which have now been leased to the dairy co-operative.
MG managing director, Gary Helou said the investment has resulted in the addition of 30 million litres of milk into the co-operative’s milk supply which represents 39 percent of the national pool, SMH reports.
Helou said that Asia’s demand for Australian milk and dairy products has made the nation’s agricultural market highly appealing for offshore investors, particularly international pension funds within the US and Europe.
"The superannuation funds are interested in the sector," Helou said. "They like the concept of Australian and New Zealand milk going into Asia."
MG’s executive general manager of shareholder relations, Robert Poole said that although they is interest from pension funds in agriculture, securing funds in quite a difficult process.
"I think agriculture will successfully attract more and more non-farm capital but companies like Murray Goulburn are going to have to work hard to facilitate that," Poole said.
"We didn't necessarily want to go into this avenue but we could see that if we were going to grow milk supply and attract capital we needed to be a party … and as a co-op we were well placed to link equity to farmers."