I wanted to follow up on the farm land, and related, stocks.

Allow me to disclaim the hell out of this research. I do not vouch for the accuracy of any of the ticker symbols as things get lost in the translation going from the symbols on the local markets and the US five letter identifier.

Further I have not done what I would call proper research on any of the names this merely an acknowledgment that these companies exist.

This post is just my sharing what I have found so far but there is more looking still to be done.

Remember the big macro which I think is that the dynamics of supply and demand for food are changing. There has been a combination of more demand from incrementally richer countries, investment demand for certain products, funky weather in some places (Australia had drought issues for quite a while) and concerns about input costs that all create a thesis for farm stocks and the like being an important theme.

Or not. This is in the eye of the beholder and so the idea might turn out to simply be incorrect.

My motivation, actually there is more than one, for exploring this sort of thing is that my job is to try to find a way to help people make their number over long periods of time so it is worth the effort to explore something like this that may or may not go anywhere. On a personal note its just interesting to learn about something new.

I have had some reader input but am hoping for more.

First New Zealand.

• Allied Farmers Limited (ALF.NZ) appears to be crops, livestock and wool but also has a financing business and real estate
• PGG Wrightson Limited (PGW.NZ and PGWFF.PK) looks like it more about providing services to farms including auctions, financing/leasing and just about any other service a dairy farm would need, also involved with wool, farming supplies even nutrition and irrigation
• Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC.NZ) also not a farm but instead farm services similar to PGG Wrightson
• New Zealand Wine Company (NWC.NZ and NZWNF.PK) this might be a stretch

Sweden

• Black Earth Farming LTD (BEF-SDB.ST and BLERF.PK) recently listed in Stockholm but the land is in South West Russia where the soil is apparently very rich and has not bee farmed much, farms mostly wheat also barley, rye and forage corn it appears to be profitable
• Trigon Agri (TAGR.ST and TRGAF.PK) again listed in Sweden owns land in Russia also Estonia and Ukraine it operates dairy farms and cereal farms, provides storage and trader services and has a private equity arm for investing in other farms

Indonesia

• Astra Agro Lestari (AALI.JK and PTABF.PK) definitely involved in palm oil plantation but in looking at more of the site it might be a conglomerate, if anyone knows please leave a comment
• Sampoerna Agro (SGRO.JK and PTSMF.PK) palm oil plantations and mills but you probably know it by it’s former name PT Selapan Jaya, ahem
• Bakrie Sumatra Plantations (UNSP.JK and PBSLF.PK) produces palm oil and rubber in what looks like a large area of the country
• London Sumatera (LSIP.JK and PPLFF.PK) produces palm oil, rubber, cocoa, coconuts and coffee at 38 plantations

Thailand

• Chumporn Palm Oil (CPI in Thailand maybe CUPNF.PK or CUPMF.PK) produces and exports palm oil
• President Rice Products (TF in Thailand PRPFF.PK in the US) packages and sells rice, noodles and other food, the site says they produce but I’m not sure if that means they farm it
• Sri Trang Agro (STA in Thailand and maybe STJFF.PK or SJLUF.PK)
• Charoen Pokphand Foods Public (CPF in Thailand and CPOKY.PK) involved with livestock, sea food, animal feed and food processing

Australia

• ABB Grains Limited (ABB.AX and ABBGF.PK) appears to do everything except farm what grows in Australia, also has a presence in NZ and Ukraine, has exposure to wool but I found no mention of cattle
• Graincorp Limited (GNC.AX and GRCLF.PK) similar to ABB, GNC is more about logistics, storage and other services than actually growing anything
• AWB Limited (AWB.AX and AWBZF.PK) describes itself as manager and marketer of Australian bulk wheat exports
• Australian Agricultural Company Limited (AAC.AX and ASAGF.PK) owns almost 8 million hectares and 585,000 head of cattle, there does not appear to be any crops
• Maryborough Sugar Factory Limited (MSF.AX and MBSFF.PK) grows and refines sugar
• Namoi Cotton Co-Op (NAM.AX and NMCTF.PK) does everything but grow the cotton
• PrimeAg Australia Limited (PAG.AX and PMLIF.PK) this appears to have just listed in December and I saw no evidence that it has bought anything yet, it will buy land that will farm for soft commodities and cattle with extra attention paid to water access
• Select Harvests Limited (SHV.AX and SHVTF.PK) appears to be the nut king of antipodes especially almonds
• Timbercorp Limited (TIM.AX and TBEPF.PK) is actually an investment manager with a portfolio of eucalypt plantations, olives groves, almond orchards, citrus orchards, table grape vineyards, mango orchards and avocado orchards

Malaysia

• IJM Plantations BHD (2216.KL) palm oil and palm kernel, part of a larger conglomerate which might trade under ticker IJMCF.PK
• United Plantation (2089.KL) cultivates and processes palm oil, coconuts and bananas (mostly palm oil), also owns plantations in Indonesia, has a stock listing in Copenhagen
• TH Plantations (5112.KL and THPLF.PK) cultivates palm oil, processes fruit and markets palm oil
• Sime Darby (4197.KL and SMEBF.PK) kind of the GE of Malaysia it has a plantation division that is primarily palm oil with a couple of other things, if you ever have any interest in Malaysia you should probably learn a little about Sime Darby it is the largest holding in iShares Malaysia (EWM)

Brazil

• SLC Agricon (SLCE3.SA and SLCJF.PK) produces and exports soybeans, cotton, corn, coffee and a little wheat, the company is also geographically diverse and has outperformed iShares Brazil (EWZ) dramatically
• JBS SA (JBSS3.SA and JBSAF.PK) the website says it is the world’s largest producer of beef, its 22 plants are mostly in Brazil abut also Agentina, the US and Australia, earnings growth looks like it has been good but the stock has lagged EWZ
• Cosan Limited (CZZ on the NYZE) it grows and processes sugar for human consumption and ethanol, it also sells sugar all over the world, it has a ton of cash per share (according to Yahoo) , it has generally lagged EWZ and been more volatile in doing so
• Sao Martinho (SMTO3.SA and SRTOF.PK) sugar and ethanol the stock has done a little better than CZZ, based on its most recent earnings report the company appears to be very exposed to the price of sugar, at times this would be a good thing and at other times not

Last 5 posts by Roger Nusbaum

• The Big Picture for the Week of November 15, 2009 - November 14th, 2009
• Process Drilldown - October 23rd, 2009
• Sunday Morning Coffee 10-18-09 - October 18th, 2009
• A Little Followup From This Morning - October 8th, 2009
• Wednesday Roundup - October 7th, 2009