U.S. Pension Fund Ready To Double Global Farmland Investment

According to the daily Infoma Report, U.S. pension fund TIAA-CREF has around $2 billion invested in farmland, of the $426 billion it has under management, and is looking to expand its agricultural land holdings, a senior company official said recently. Around 85% of the fund’s farmland portfolio is directly owned and the fund focuses on farmland in grain exporting regions including the U.S., Australia, Central and Eastern Europe and South America.

“If we found the right opportunities we would be willing to double our existing exposure over the next few years,” Jose Minaya, managing director of global private markets at the fund said in London.

Although the fund sees Africa as an interesting investment opportunity it does not have any immediate investment plans in the region. Minaya describes agriculture as an evolving asset class with low institutional penetration.

“We’ve heard anywhere from $5 billion to $15 billion of institutional money is invested on a global basis in agriculture farmland everyone is guessing. Relative to the global value of farmland there’s probably less than 1% of institutional money invested,” said Minaya.