DWS Investments has launched a new managed fund offering investors an opportunity to participate in global agribusiness.

A first of its kind in the Middle East, the DWS Global Agribusiness Fund seeks investments in all parts of the food production-to-consumption value chain via stakes in listed companies worldwide.

These companies are involved in various forms of agribusiness ranging from land and plantations, seeds and fertilisers, equipment manufacturing for planting and harvesting, to crop protection, water and irrigation, aquaculture, bio fuels, the marketing and sales of agricultural and food products, and climate services.

According to DWS Investments’ investment specialist, Bill Barbour, in Mena for the launch of the fund, the attractiveness of the sector is a by-product of long-term fundamental changes shaping both developed and developing nations.

“There clearly are investment opportunities stemming from the business of feeding the world,” said Barbour. “Populations are swelling, driving fierce demand for food. The number of people worldwide has more than tripled in the past century and is forecast to rise 40 per cent to more than 9 billion in coming decades. The race is on not only to feed the world, but also to produce more quality food to meet the changing nutritional needs of this increasingly affluent population.”

Barbour further argues that increased global prosperity has had an enormous impact on consumption patterns. The growing middle classes of developing nations are shifting away from staples such as rice and towards higher protein diets, boosting the need for more beef, poultry, fish as well as feed sources for livestock. The security of food supply is becoming more tenuous as the amount of arable land per person shrinks and rising temperatures affect water resources.

The DWS Global Agribusiness Fund is available to retail investors from all Citibank and Standard Chartered branches in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and from ABN AMRO Bank in Dubai.-TradeArabia News Service