Orana Agriculture has bought Sunland Fresh Fruit
- By: "Farm Tender" News
- Machinery & Equipment News
- Aug 04, 2018
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Orana Agriculture has bought Sunland Fresh Fruit, one of Australia’s largest privately owned fruit growing operations, from the De Maio family for a total consideration of A$20 million (US$14.2 million).
The operation was placed on the market one year ago with an asking price of A$25 million (US$18.5 million), listed with selling agent Shane McIntyre with Colliers International who marketed the property along with Andrew Jenkins Real Estate, reports AFR.
All told, Sunland included 363 hectares of orchards, production facilities, and shedding assets spread across seven properties, growing peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, persimmons, pears, and apples which are predominantly sold on the Australian market, with a smaller portion being exported to China.
In 2016 the company produced nearly 8,000 tons of fruit, and was expected to see production reach 11,000 tons by this year after an expansion of planted acreage.
“Significant water entitlements of almost 2500 megalitres from deep and shallow bores, channels and Murray River, infrastructure and plant and equipment are all included in the walk in-walk out sale,” said McIntyre in June of last year when Sunland was placed on the market.
Records indicate that Orana paid A$9.6 million (US$7.1 million) for Sunland’s Barooga property with 176 hectares of orchards near Cobram; paid A$4 million (US$2.96 million) for another 44-hectare packing complex; paid A$5.3 million (US$3.92 million) for the Densen, Okane, and Pullars agricultural parcels, which together total 100 hectares; and paid A$1 million (US$740,000) for a power station.
Orana Agriculture was established in 2016 by Nigel Sharp, Harry Youngman, and a third director, Andrew Hanson, who is based in Melbourne.
Sharp is a director of Kilter Rural, a rural fund manager, and was previously CEO of Australia Asia Investment Management, which controlled a portfolio valued at $300 million when it was acquired by Stockland.
Youngman is a director with Melbourne-based Lyons Capital, and also heads up Ardgartan Pastoral Company in Victoria.
Under the terms of the agreed sale, the DeMaio family have retained a 31 hectare residential parcel in Cobram, and have offered to continue to manage Sunland for a multiple season term to give the buyers a period of time to “understand the asset”, according to AFR.
Another Opportunity
Within the past 10 days it was learned that another significant orchard operation has been placed on the market – this time in New Zealand.
Seeka Limited, a Te Puke, New Zealand-based company providing orchard leasing, management, and post-harvest services, announced its intention to sell its Northland land holding.
The assets in question total 288 hectares across nine orchards, including six orchards recently acquired by Seeka from T&G Global only months ago.
“This is a large scale horticultural asset holding in a prime growing region of New Zealand,” said Michael Franks, CEO of Seeka. “We are looking for a large scale investor or consortium to own these orchards with professional orchard management and post-harvest services in place from Seeka. At the same time Seeka is investing in the fundamental post-harvest infrastructure with new packing facilities and cool storage planned for Kerikeri.”
The sale process is set to run for five weeks, with the calling of bids scheduled for August 15, 2018. All interested investors can access the Northland Orchard Information Memorandum here.
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