Once again, around a hundred tractors surrounded Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid on Monday February 26. While farmers are protesting against the low profitability of their farms, bureaucratic difficulties, competition from third countries or the environmental standards imposed in Brussels, another fundamental movement is occurring in Spain: the massive arrival of investment funds in agricultural land.
In November 2023, the Atitlan company purchased 800 hectares of pistachio trees from the Castilian agricultural group Agnbro Capital, bringing the pistachio farms of its Elaia agricultural platform to 3,200 hectares. In September 2023, the Canadian fund Fiera Capital, which manages 120 billion dollars (111 billion euros) in assets worldwide, bought 8,000 hectares of olive trees in Portugal and Spain from the Innoliva group for more than 300 million euros.
In April, it was the American fund Solum Partners, linked to Harvard University, which reached an agreement with another investor, Magnum Industrial Capital Partners, for the acquisition of the Spanish fruit and vegetable production holding company Greentastic, for a sum estimated between 250 and 300 million euros. In December 2022, the Climate Asset Management fund, launched by HSBC and Pollination, took ownership of 400 hectares of almond trees in Extremadura… A non-exhaustive list.
In 2023, the world of finance has invested nearly 2 billion euros in the acquisition of agricultural land in Spain, according to the international commercial real estate consulting company CBRE. “It’s almost double the pre-Covid years”summarizes Manuel Valadas de Albuquerque, head of agribusiness for CBRE Spain, who highlights the relatively low price of Spanish land, but also a favorable climate, even if it is marked by more drought, good infrastructure, particularly in in terms of irrigation, farmers who have become much more professional, and good-sized farms, less fragmented for example than in Italy.
“Good soil is worth gold”
“Agricultural land constitutes an alternative asset to that of the traditional real estate sector, explains Mr. Valadas de Albuquerque. There is less and less productive land available as the world’s population increases and so does food needs. When you add the effects of climate change, good soil, with good access to water, is worth gold. It is a defensive asset, which is not sensitive to major economic cycles, and in Spain almond farms, for example, are worth half as much as in California. »
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