As with any niche asset class, investors need to be aware of what they’re investing in. As Mr Straetmans explains: “If you look at it from a fundamental basis it still doesn’t look really good, but you can have pockets that might become interesting.”
Nyree Stewart is acting features editor at Investment Adviser
Funds to watch
Ben Willis, investment manager and head of research at Whitechurch Securities, says: “At present, we do not actively invest in the agricultural theme, though we have met with a couple of managers who run agriculturally focused funds. If we decided to allocate to this area then it would be these types of funds that would be considered.”
Eclectica Agriculture
Managed by George Lee and launched in 2007 the fund does not invest in futures, options, ETFs, agricultural indices or go short. It is a long-only equity fund. The fund can only invest in stocks that derive more than 50 per cent of their business in agriculture and this leaves the manager with an investment universe of approximately 400 global stocks to select from. The fund will invest into roughly 80-90 of these stocks at any one time.
Sarasin Agrisar
This fund is managed by Henry Boucher and was launched in March 2008. It follows Sarasin’s Global Thematic Approach and incorporates current themes such as Corporate Restructuring, Strong Get Stronger, Pricing Power and invests across the ‘field to fork spectrum’ which means from crop cultivation / fertilisers through to food production and food consumption.
