Warakirri commences new Dairies strategy

26 February 2025

Warakirri Asset Management (Warakirri), one of Australia’s largest, most experienced and diverse Agriculture investment managers, has announced the commencement of an Australian Dairies strategy.

The new own and operate strategy is expected to deliver competitive risk-adjusted returns of over 10% per annum by investing in a diversified portfolio of investment grade dairy farming and infrastructure assets which will look to deliver competitive returns in addition to making a positive impact through both an emissions reduction strategy and social responsibility approach which actively supports the regions in which the strategy invests.

The new strategy will be led by Ben James, current CEO of Aurora Dairies, a business which has been managed by Warakirri since 2019, to become one of the leading dairies platforms in Australia and New Zealand.

“We believe significant long term investment opportunities continue to exist in the dairy industry and have seen a constant increase in demand for milk and dairy products both domestically and in the Asia Pacific region.  There is a global supply deficit in milk looking out to 2030 and beyond of approximately 20 million tons of liquid milk supply which is approximately a 17% deficit to total demand,” said Jim McKay, Warakirri’s Managing Director.

“This strategy reflects our high conviction that the dairy industry has a compelling structural imbalance that underpins long term return on investment,” he added.

“Dairy is the third largest food source by volume globally and not only is total milk consumption growing, but per capita consumption is growing with around 15% of all new food consumption via dairy products.  Growing demand and shrinking production has supported milk price growth over the long term which has outpaced inflation, and which is expected to be supported by widening milk supply gaps,” said Ben James, Dairies CEO.

“We are very excited about the future for dairy and the significant opportunity in front of us, as we continue to see significant upside across both short- and long-term fundamentals from large-scale operators such as ourselves which should drive strong competitive returns into the future,” he added.

For more information on the strategy, please contact us on 1300 927 254 or at contact@warakirri.com.au.