We have numerous contacts throughout the entire farming community including land agents, livestock agents, farming companies as well as individual farmers. This enables us to identify and be aware of suitable farmland often before it comes on to the open market. We negotiate a purchase as though we are buying the property for ourselves – there are no competing demands, no secret commissions.

We also have contacts with landowners who do not wish to actively farm their lands and are seeking to secure a long-term lease to provide them with a more passive form of income. This can be an attractive model to investors as upfront costs are substantially reduced. In our experience the keys to successful leasing arrangements are that the lease is for a long-term and that tenant farmers respect the land and manage its condition as though it is their own.

There are numerous drivers underlying an investment in agriculture. Investors may be seeking specific produce to secure their supply chain needs feeding into other areas of their business. Others may be seeking secure, long-term investment returns from an underlying asset that, historically, has shown strong increases in capital value. Whatever the reason underlying your investment decision, FIMA will work with you to achieve your desired result.

We can source individual small-scale farms through to large farmland aggregations.

We undertake a thorough analysis of each land holding before we present it to clients for consideration. The result of this analysis is a formal Land Acquisition and Management Plan in which FIMA documents:

Clients may use their own lawyers to vet the legal arrangements and contracts or FIMA can introduce clients to legal service providers who specialise in agriculture. Full due diligence is undertaken to ensure our clients obtain proper title to land acquired. FIMA will ensure all regulatory requirements are met including FIRB registration or approval, as necessary. FIMA can also arrange for establishment and registration of the ownership vehicle with ASIC and the ATO if required.

FIMA provides a number of services depending on our clients’ requirements.

Including:

- Managing agricultural land developments including infrastructure upgrades

- Planning agricultural production in consultation with our clients

- Setting up suitable operational management frameworks to undertake planned production

- Machinery and plant acquisition

- Operational management of agricultural production including agronomy and animal husbandry

- Applying agricultural technology that is matched to the agricultural production system

- Implementing Best Management Practices (BMP) and having these ISO accredited where this is considered an advantage

- Matching the clients’ desired mix of operational plant ownership with external contractors given the local availability and ability to meet timeliness of operations

- Bringing in agricultural expertise in R & ;D where required

- Managing all aspects of the agricultural compliance and biosecurity framework

- Managing the WHS framework of agricultural investment operations

- Managing aspects of upstream processing of agricultural produce

- Marketing produce and establishing networks for a client’s product both domestically and internationally

- Physically managing all aspects of operational activity

- Developing and managing operational teams where the scale requires

- Ensuring all financial dealings are undertaken with the greatest transparency and accountability

- Ensuring BAS and tax reporting requirements are complied with for the ownership vehicle

- Providing regular investment accounting reports to clients