Asset manager buys five Cobram orchards
Warakirri Asset Management has paid $25 million for a five-property orchard aggregation near Cobram in northern Victoria – expanding its exposure in one of Australia’s largest horticultural regions.
The Mayview Farms amalgamation contains c250 hectares of productive stone fruit, pome fruit and citrus gardens.
It will be held by the Warakirri Farmland Fund.
Cobram, in Victoria’s Murray River irrigation district, is about 250 kilometres north of Melbourne’s CBD.
Mayview Farms
The Mayview Farms aggregation was acquired as part of a broader transaction involving fruit growers Diaco Fresh and Orsida Fresh and Mildura Fruit Company, owned by Chinese food and agriculture group Bright Food.
It includes established tree crops, high-security water entitlements and capital for future upgrades and development.
The seller was a consortium controlled by the Diaco and Orsida families.
As part of the transaction, the two families combined their separate growing and packing businesses to establish DiOrsa Farms, a new vertically integrated horticultural operator which has taken a long-term lease over the orchard assets from Warakirri (continues below).
The structure separates ownership of the farmland from the operating business
The existing growers will continue as tenants.
DiOrsa Farms will combine the Diaco and Orsida families’ production expertise with the packing, logistics and export capabilities of Mildura Fruit Company and Bright Food.
The combined business will control more than 480 hectares of orchard operations across the region.
The Mayview Farms transaction includes established tree crops, high-security water entitlements and capital for future upgrades and development.
“This investment aligns strongly with our approach of partnering with experienced growers and supply chain participants to support the development of sustainable, long-term horticultural businesses and adds a number of further high-quality assets to the Warakirri Farmland Fund portfolio,” Warakirri portfolio manager, Steve Jarrott, said.
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