I have been very interested in the agribusiness opportunities here in Panama and have invested personally in some small way with beef cattle and now vegetables. As food is central to all issues both economically and politically around the world these days, I think that it is important to pay attention and learn more about this and the Latin American Sector. As a note, we have operating dairy farms and green house vegetable operations for investment here in the Chiriqui province.
Here is an article that I found very interesting that was published by Alternative LatinInvestor written by Gonzalo Fernandez Castro and Christian Seiling.
Three Strategies for Investing in the Latin American Agricultural Sector
Agribusiness Investing in the Latin American Sector
APRIL, 2011
By Gonzalo Fernandez Castro & Christian Sieling
Several clear forces are driving the current upward trend in soft commodities: the increased protein content in diets in developing world countries; the use of grain to feed animals due to transformation of grasslands into agricultural land; and the use of grains for biofuel production.
The US, former Soviet countries and Latin America are the largest oilseeds and grain producing regions in the world, but Latin America, with its large stock of arable land and access to renewable sources of water, is the one region best positioned to sustain significant further growth. Latin America has already significantly expanded its production capacity, mainly through the use of more advanced technology (seeds, fertilizers, machinery) and an increase in the number of hectares (10,000 square meters) under production. This trend of expansion of agricultural capacity in the region is clear to continue into the future – significant areas of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and even Colombia and Bolivia are being transformed for production.
However, investing in the high growth market in this attractive region is not always easy or straightforward, given the lack of publicly traded instruments. There are few publicly traded agriculture companies in the region, and they do not always provide adequate exposure. Most investments, therefore, have been private equity or direct ownership in industry-related or agricultural production companies, including large acquisitions of land.
Given this context, the best three ways to…..