September 10, 2019

By Lynda Kiernan

Agriculture Capital, an agricultural investment group focused on sustainable and regenerative permanent crop investment opportunities, announced it has expanded its portfolio into frozen fruit processing with the acquisition of Firestone Pacific Foods.

Family-operated in Vancouver, Washington, since 1896, Firestone Pacific Foods is a top supplier of frozen food products. Assets included in the deal are a state-of-the-art frozen processing facility, and packing and cold storage facilities with high standards in food safety and traceability.

The addition of these assets will prove to be highly complementary to Agriculture Capital’s permanent crop portfolio, which currently encompasses 18,000 acres across California, Oregon, and Australia, including 3,000 acres of blueberry farms under management in Oregon and California, table grapes, hazelnuts, and citrus.

Additionally, in March of last year the investor announced the acquisition of Columbine Vineyards, a fourth-generation family table grape operation located in Kern County, California. Included in the transaction were 7,000 acres of farmland, and a range of operating assets including state-of-the-art cold storage facilities. 

“Firestone Pacific Foods’ dedication to growing, freezing, and distributing the highest quality fruit makes them a natural fit for Agriculture Capital,” said Tom Avinelis, co-managing director, Agriculture Capital. “Given its innovative processing and frozen capabilities and Agriculture Capital’s organic blueberry production, our combined teams will provide healthy and safe products for more people.”

As a part of its overall strategy, Agriculture Capital engages in an owner-operator investment model, using its own teams and expertise to operate its own asset portfolio.

“We believe that management is critical to success in the category and have built our team with that in mind,” Rob Hurlburt, principal at Agriculture Capital and lead of the firm’s sustainable agriculture strategies, told GAI News in 2015.

And Agriculture Capital’s team has a significant war chest behind them. In October 2017 the firm announced the close of its Agriculture Capital Management Fund II (ACM Fund II) significantly oversubscribed at $548 million. 

The fund, which had an initial cap of $400 million, invests in permanent crop farming operations in the Western U.S. focused on citrus, hazelnut, blueberry, and table grape production along with tangential midstream assets under a vertically integrated strategy resulting in a “vertically integrated enterprise that grows, packs and markets high-value produce,” according to the firm’s website. Drilling down into the fund’s mission, Agriculture Capital is targeting the formation of a “regenerative food and agriculture system that produces better food at scale and delivers health returns to investors while making a difference in our communities.”

For Firestone, which has built-out strong relationships with top-tier growers and worldwide customers, this tie-in with Agriculture Capital, which is one of the largest organic blueberry growers in the U.S., and the first to use the Bee Better CertifiedTM seal developed by the Xerces Society for on-farm native pollinator habitat restoration, will enable the company to scale its business through the expansion of its processing and cold storage capabilities. 

“We are excited to embark on this next phase of our business and to join the Agriculture Capital family of companies,” said Stan Firestone, president, Firestone Pacific Foods. “Agriculture Capital shares our values and its commitment to excellence, accountability, transparency and stewardship is well-aligned with our company’s passion to deliver the finest fruit quality with high levels of food safety and flawless operational performance.”

Said Avinelis, “We are thrilled to scale Firestone Pacific Foods’ operations, building on its trusted relationships as we grow together.”

– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.