News Farmland
Pension fund for agriculture steps into land
BPL Pensioen (company pension fund for agriculture) and funeral insurer DELA joined the ASR Dutch Farmland Fund on 1 October. asr announced this today, 3 November. BPL Pensioen and DELA will be the first participants to invest in the unlisted fund of asr real estate.
The participants enter the fund with €310 million. The ASR Dutch Farmland Fund has 36.000 hectares of agricultural land in the Netherlands. The total value of the fund in €1,8 billion, asr real estate reports. The portfolio has been built up over more than 100 years. The fund has a strong focus on long-term value creation for farmers, investors and society. "The fund has the ambition to continue to grow and to pass on agricultural land to future generations in an even better condition," says Dick van den Oever, fund director ASR Dutch Farmland Fund in the message on the asr site. In areas of sustainability such as land mobility, we want to play a progressive role together with agricultural entrepreneurs. Based on our 'climate-smart farming' strategy, we work together with knowledge institutions and chain parties in the sector." BPL Pensioen and DELA both cite the socially responsible investment policy as an important reason to participate in the ASR Dutch Farmland Fund.
Stimulating sustainable farming
In November last year, asr announced that it believes that making the agricultural sector more sustainable is a task that should not only be borne by the farmers themselves, but also by other parties in the chain. Asr also sees itself as a player with a role to play. Farmers who lease land from asr and are committed to sustainable business operations receive a discount of 5 to 10% on the ground rent. To this end, asr has practical sustainability guidelines that are aligned as much as possible with existing sustainability certifications.
Jurphaas Lugtenburg
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