The world’s largest macadamia producers, the Zadro family, have tipped their Gemfields aggregation in Queensland’s Central Highlands to the market, with expectations of $70 million as institutional investors grow their focus on horticulture ventures.
At the same time, the Elliot River horticulture portfolio in the Coastal Burnett region has been listed for sale with a circa $30 million price tag, making for $100 million worth of sunshine state horticultural assets available.
Both portfolios are being offered through Land, Agribusiness, Water and Development (LAWD) agents Danny Thomas and Simon Cudmore.
The non-contiguous Zadro family-owned landholdings at Emerald include Gemfields, spanning 779 hectares, and Cypress and Bauhinias, which encompass 3,607 hectares. The portfolio is currently utilised as a 455-hectare macadamia orchard and irrigated cropping enterprise, focused on producing high-yielding crops including cotton, sorghum and wheat, as well as portions of dryland cropping. Cypress and Bauhinias also features a macadamia plant nursery that produces about 150,000 trees each year with a capacity of 442,000. More than 900 hectares are suitable for further tree crop development, and the property is also highly suited to cattle grazing.
Having farmed nuts for about 40 years, the Zadro family operates Saratoga Holdings which grows macadamias in Queensland, northern NSW and South Africa.
The offering follows Cowal Agriculture putting its adjoining Emerald portfolio to the market late last year with hopes of $120 million.
Thomas said there is the potential to transform the undeveloped land at Gemfields to permanent horticulture trees, macadamia, pecan, citrus or table grapes, or cotton production, and there is potential to expand the portfolio’s flood irrigation area for the purpose of growing cotton.
He said there has been a rapid institutionalisation of the horticulture sector over the past 15 years.
“Like the Gemfields and Elliot River vendors, there have been a number of second and third-generation families who have built extraordinary, high-value cropping assets which are currently in strong demand from institutional-grade buyers and farming families looking to expand operations.”
Thomas said a key feature of both portfolios was their access to substantial and secure water.
“Water security underwrites the production systems of both aggregations and their current operations, and the water associated with these assets is considerably more stable and consistent than horticulture assets found further south,” he said.
Gemfields is supported by 6,090 megalitres of Medium Priority water allocations delivered through a high-quality irrigation network. Elliot River’s irrigation water is sourced from 296 megalitres unsupplemented water allocations and 70 megalitres of irrigation water licences.
The Elliot River Horticulture Portfolio comprises Carina Downs, Gillen Creek and Logging Creek. It is currently an institutional-scale irrigated vegetable enterprise, focused on the production of capsicum, tomatoes, and zucchinis.
The vendors are open to sale on a vacant possession basis or with a long-term triple net lease back, with a proposed rent of about $2.55 million per annum.
“These properties enjoy a broad growing window allowing the operators to fill supermarket shelves when there is a gap in the market to achieve premium prices,” Thomas said.
The properties within both aggregations are offered in one line respectively or as separate assets.
