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<\/p>\nAn Australian business linking city-based investors with farmers is giving primary producers a new avenue for capital and a chance for city folk to farm from their smartphone.<\/p>\n
Using the online platform Invest Inya Farmer (IIF), investors can buy a share of farm produce before it matures and is sold.<\/p>\n
Investments can range from a dozen oysters at $10 to larger offerings such as a $20,000 cow, with stakes averaging about $500 each.<\/p>\n
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Ewan McAsh says the platform has been “catalytic” for his oyster farming business. (ABC Landline: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n
In the past four years IIF says it has provided more than $20 million of investment across 100 Australian farms.<\/p>\n
Kylie Clarkin is an investor from Sydney’s Northern Beaches.<\/p>\n
Mrs Clarkin has ridden the lows of climate events and the highs of bumper crops on the IIF app since it went live in 2022.<\/p>\n
Her earliest investments were in oysters and her current portfolio includes ginger, watermelon and oats.<\/p>\n
“I’m lacking right now in cattle,” she said.<\/p>\n
Mrs Clarkin said since joining IIF she had averaged an annual return of 7 per cent and 85 per cent of her holdings had been profitable, with some returns as high as 25 per cent.<\/p>\n
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Kylie Clarkin has invested in farms across Australia using the IIF platform. (ABC Landline: Mia Ginnivan)<\/p>\n
She prefers to invest in organic and regenerative farming.<\/p>\n
“Even if that has a lower value in terms of profit, I would make a decision to invest in that rather than invest in something that’s going to have a higher profit, because it’s actually something that’s very close to my heart.”<\/p>\n
Asset rich, cash poor<\/p>\n
For farmers, who can be asset rich but cash poor, IIF offers access to capital, and spreads risk.<\/p>\n
If a crop fails, the loss is shared.<\/p>\n
Lachie Varley, from Pine Lodge in the New South Wales Riverina region, recently listed his first corn crop on the platform.<\/p>\n
As a young farmer, he said it could be challenging to access adequate capital.<\/p>\n
“We find ourselves struggling to have sufficient funds to sort of grow the crops out to their full potential.”<\/p>\n
Batemans Bay oyster farmer Ewan McAsh was one of the first farmers to list an offering on the IIF app.<\/p>\n
Capital is a constant challenge in his industry because oysters are grown on leases issued by the state government and cannot be borrowed against in the same way land can be.<\/p>\n
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Ewan McAsh was one of the first to list an offering on the IIF platform. (ABC Landline: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n
“So traditionally, I’ve borrowed against my own family house to fund the farm and that’s generally how farmers in this industry will borrow money if they can,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr McAsh said the platform had been “catalytic” for his business.<\/p>\n
“IIF’s allowed us to sell some of that crop as it’s growing in the water and then re-invest in new equipment and in new seed.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got one of the most modern, you know, innovative farms in Australia.”<\/p>\n
Farming without land<\/p>\n
Nathan MacPhee founded IIF after moving to Victoria’s High Country after a decades-long finance career in Sydney.<\/p>\n
He considered farming but quickly realised he did not have enough land to be commercially viable or sustainable.<\/p>\n
“I thought, ‘Well, if I can’t buy a farm, what if I can buy a cow, a cow on someone else’s farm?'”<\/p>\n
IIF has about 8,000 shareholder investors and is regulated as a cooperative under Australian law.<\/p>\n
“We own millions of oysters; we’ve invested in thousands of livestock,” Mr MacPhee said.<\/p>\n
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Nathan MacPhee (left) and Lachie Varley inspect crops near Finley, NSW. (ABC Landline: Rob Shaw-Velzen)<\/p>\n
“Our cropping transcends multiple states and we’ve grown melons in Far North Queensland and blackberries in Tasmania.”<\/p>\n
Mr MacPhee said diversification was vital for IIF due to the volatility of farming.<\/p>\n
“We embrace that volatility, we seek it and we manage it through an incredibly diversified experience.”<\/p>\n
A different kind of return<\/p>\n
ABC Business reporter Daniel Ziffer said while investors would be looking for good returns, in this case, they might want to feel a connection to farming life and the produce they were consuming.<\/p>\n
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Oysters are one of the crops offered for investment via Invest Inya Farmer. (ABC Landline: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n
He said the IIF model was a way for farmers to take on a partner who provided “a bit of capital and takes a bit of the risk.”<\/p>\n
“Farmers are some of the biggest gamblers around.”<\/p>\n
“You’re betting on things you just have no control over: commodity prices and weather.<\/p>\n
“The amount of risk that is involved in a lot of farming, most people would not be able to deal with. They’d never get to sleep.”<\/p>\n
Kylie Clarkin said supporting Australian farmers was a big motivator in her involvement.<\/p>\n
She also made a small seed investment in the early stages of IIF.<\/p>\n
“There’s [been] a reduction in the number of farmers and bigger corporations buying farms out,” she said.<\/p>\n
“And that’s, I think, a risk for all of us in terms of the cost of our food and the quality of our food.”<\/p>\n
This story is not intended as investment advice.<\/p>\n