City investors buy shares in oysters, cows and bumper crops

An 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.

Using the online platform Invest Inya Farmer (IIF), investors can buy a share of farm produce before it matures and is sold.

Investments can range from a dozen oysters at $10 to larger offerings such as a $20,000 cow, with stakes averaging about $500 each.

In the past four years IIF says it has provided more than $20 million of investment across 100 Australian farms.

Kylie Clarkin is an investor from Sydney's Northern Beaches.

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.

Her earliest investments were in oysters and her current portfolio includes ginger, watermelon and oats.

"I'm lacking right now in cattle,"

she said.

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.

She prefers to invest in organic and regenerative farming.

"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."

Asset rich, cash poor

For farmers, who can be asset rich but cash poor, IIF offers access to capital, and spreads risk.

If a crop fails, the loss is shared.

Lachie Varley, from Pine Lodge in the New South Wales Riverina region, recently listed his first corn crop on the platform.

As a young farmer, he said it could be challenging to access adequate capital.

"We find ourselves struggling to have sufficient funds to sort of grow the crops out to their full potential."

Batemans Bay oyster farmer Ewan McAsh was one of the first farmers to list an offering on the IIF app.

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.

"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.

Mr McAsh said the platform had been "catalytic" for his business.

"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.

"We've got one of the most modern, you know, innovative farms in Australia."

Farming without land

Nathan MacPhee founded IIF after moving to Victoria's High Country after a decades-long finance career in Sydney.

He considered farming but quickly realised he did not have enough land to be commercially viable or sustainable.

"I thought, 'Well, if I can't buy a farm, what if I can buy a cow, a cow on someone else's farm?'"

IIF has about 8,000 shareholder investors and is regulated as a cooperative under Australian law.

"We own millions of oysters; we've invested in thousands of livestock," Mr MacPhee said.

"Our cropping transcends multiple states and we've grown melons in Far North Queensland and blackberries in Tasmania."

Mr MacPhee said diversification was vital for IIF due to the volatility of farming.

"We embrace that volatility, we seek it and we manage it through an incredibly diversified experience."

A different kind of return

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.

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."

"Farmers are some of the biggest gamblers around."

"You're betting on things you just have no control over: commodity prices and weather.

"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."

Kylie Clarkin said supporting Australian farmers was a big motivator in her involvement.

She also made a small seed investment in the early stages of IIF.

"There's [been] a reduction in the number of farmers and bigger corporations buying farms out," she said.

"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."

This story is not intended as investment advice.

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