Agribusiness expansion

May 13, 2016

Similar to our entry into tourism markets, we also see a lot of potential upside in gaining exposure to Australia’s agribusiness sector.

We have settled our first agribusiness acquisition and are actively looking at further opportunities to grow our presence in this sector.

The first asset for our new open-ended Sentinel Income Trust is the Purga Breeder Farms property outside Ipswich in south east Queensland. It is set on a large 157 acre site and comprises three poultry breeder farms and associated infrastructure for a total of 35,252sq m under roof with a licenced capacity of 187,000 birds.

This is an ideal asset for Sentinel’s expansion into the agribusiness sector as it provides a secure income stream from a 20-year lease to Steggles which is owned by Baiada, the largest poultry producing company in Australia.

Poultry is the single strongest performing component of Australia’s agribusiness sector with a reported increase in chicken meat production of over 185% in the past 15 years, and is set for continued growth on the back of strong domestic and international demand.

Only 2% of the world’s chicken meat is currently produced in Australia and we are the only continent that has not had bird flu, so there is enormous future international growth potential for this industry.