The plan to set up an agri-focussed fund is a logical extension of more than a century old tradition of backing the food and agribusiness by Rabobank.
Founded as a cooperative of Dutch agricultural banks in the late 1800s, the Rabobank Group has some 175-member banks in the Netherlands and dozens of subsidiaries around the world that focus on the food, agribusiness, and financial industries.
This private equity fund is expected to invest in small and medium-sized companies ranging from contract farming at the primary end and key elements of the agricultural supply chain such as cold storage chains to food processing and rural retail. The deal sizes are likely to be in the range of $3-10 million per transaction.
The segment of food-processing in India is growing at a rapid pace given the demands from aggressive retail chain roll out being witnessed in the Indian landscape over the past two years.