Farmland investment fund is seeking more than Dh1bn

The Gulf’s first agricultural investment fund is due to launch next month, focusing on land acquisitions related to cash-crop farming.

The US$350 million (Dh1.28 billion) fund, which will focus initially on rice farming in Africa and cereal cultivation in eastern Europe and former Soviet countries, is actively seeking joint ventures with Gulf family-owned conglomerates and sovereign wealth funds.

John Papesh, the managing director of Pharos Financial Group, a fund management firm based in the Dubai International Finance Centre, said: “The sky is the limit for agricultural investments and we have found tremendous appetite among our clients.