Agribusiness
Agribusiness
becoming Ideal
investment portfolio
diversification option
by Bertie Hamman, senior manager secondary agriculture, Standard Bank
A
s food security becomes a global priority,
agriculture is shaping up to become the
new investment frontier.
It has become progressively more commercialised as players
have understood the business benefits of the economies of
scale and efficiencies to be gained by integrating value chains.
Also, consolidation in the industry has created some substantial
agribusinesses capable of controlling the value chain in their
particular area of agriculture all the way from the farm to the table.
In South Africa, as elsewhere in the world, some of these large
conglomerates are listed on the stock exchange and represent
a relatively conventional way for investors to take a stake
in agriculture.
However, the new, intense focus on food security creates
an entirel