Aussie-Canadian $55-million fund partnership

Canadian Crown corporation invests in $55 million deal for Australian grain farmland.

By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com

Daybreak Cropping, a joint venture between Australian agricultural specialist Warakirri Asset Management and Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), has acquired its eighth partnered investment—the Yarrabee Park grain growing aggregation in the New South Wales (NSW) Riverina, Australia in a deal valued at more than $55 million (AUS$60-million).

The Canadian Crown corporation PSP Investments manages over $204 billion of assets on behalf of the pension plans of the Canadian Public Service, the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Reserve Force.

The acquisition of the Yarrabee Park interest expands the Daybreak Cropping portfolio to over 85,000 hectares in Australia over eight large-scale aggregations in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia.

Some in the Australian commercial real estate market, point to this strong offshore appetite for Australian agricultural interests as an indictment of its own local investment funds.

The Australian ag sector is expecting a record harvest of some $75 billion (AUS$81-billion) owing to very good weather and bumper crop yields and the highest prices for Aussie ag produce in 32 years.

Yarrabee Park is one of southern Australia’s largest contiguous grain production assets situated on an 11,200-hectare property with 10,000 hectares of farmable lands producing 37,500 tonnes of grain and fodder annually. The property had been for sae since September of 2021.