Pictet Funds, the fund distribution company of the Swiss private bank Pictet & Cie, is adding a Luxembourg-domiciled agriculture fund to its thematic funds range.
The new PF (LUX) Agriculture fund, which will be launched on 29 May, will give investors exposure to listed companies that produce food for the growing world population, but will not invest in soft commodities (such as corn, coffee, wheat and soybeans that are grown rather than mined).
Gertjan van der Geer, senior investment manager at Pictet, will run the new fund.
According to Pictet, the agricultural sector, from production to the transportation of agricultural products, has long been ignored as an area for strategic investment.
Pictet argues that the fund is well-placed to benefit from what the World Bank has predicted will be a growth of nearly 40% in the global population between 2005 and 2050.
The fund management company also quotes a McKinsey estimate that some 1.1bn people will join the middle class income groups in China and India alone between 2005 and 2025.
One area of growth van der Geer sees is in the transport infrastructure. Currently, he notes, almost 70% of agricultural production gets lost between the farm and the table.
“Reducing this inefficiency will be crucial in meeting the demands of a growing population and expanding middle class,” he says.
“We believe that in order to deal with the scale of the challenge, the agricultural sector will have to invest in new technologies, processes and farming inputs.”
The PF(LUX)-Agriculture fund is available to institutional, private banking and retail investors in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France Germany, Greece, Italy, Liechtenstein, Holland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
Pictet & Cie was founded in 1805 and is one of Switzerland’s largest private banks as well as one of Europe’s major independent asset management specialists.
