January 27, 2017

Dutch pension scheme Bpf Landbouw, the Netherlands’ retirement fund for agriculture industry workers with 14.3 billion euro in assets under management, recently changed its name to better reflect its participants and investments as well as to attract greater pension assets with an expanded focus on agriculture. Previously dubbed the Bedrijfspensioenfonds voor de Landbouw, the fund, which is widely referred to as the Dutch agriculture workers’ pension plan, in recent days became BPL Pensioen to encompass the “green sector,” according to Investments & Pensions Europe (IPE).

“For a long time, our name has not fully covered what we stand for — horticulturists and agricultural contractors, for example, have been among our participants for decades,” according to Gerard Roest, BPL’s chairman, cited in IPE.

With the name change, BPL, which takes a long-term investment approach, is now looking to attract pension funds with participants beyond traditional ag to market segments with a similar “culture and labor market” to agriculture, including “cigar making” fruit and vegetable processing companies, reports indicate. Reports indicate BPL also recently absorbed a cigar industry pension fund.

BPL’s investment strategy extends to impact investing, evidenced by its 2016 partnership with Rabobank’s pension fund. The pair obtained a 35 percent stake in a public/private investment fund established by the city government and social housing operation to slash the number of Amsterdam-based brothel and café establishments that are permitted to sell marijuana in the area, according to the FT.

“We believe that by applying ‘impact investing’ principles in Amsterdam’s city center we can achieve a solid uplift in property values for a low level of risk,” Hank Jagersma, CEO of Syntrus and manager of the property, told the FT. “At the same time, we can deliver a much safer and more attractive neighborhood for residents and visitors.”

Greater Assets

BPL in 2015 inherited 880 million euro in new pension assets, according to IPE.

Plan sponsors Givaudan, which specializes in fragrance and food-flavors, in addition to dairy producer Dairy Trading, liquidated their investments and transferred their assets to BPL. Prior to those transactions Groenten en Fruit, which is the retirement fund for the Netherlands’ vegetable and fruit processing industry, and food conglomerate Heinz’s corporate pension plan similarly combined with BPL.

Multiple asset management service providers lost contracts as a result of the streamlining of the pension assets into a single scheme, including BMO, Robeco, SEI and Aegon.

Netherlands & Agriculture

The Netherlands boasts a leadership position across agriculture, and is second only to the United States in ag exports. The country leads the world in onion production, takes the No. 2 spot for its quality of water transportation and is home to some of Europe’s largest sea terminals including the Port of Rotterdam and the Port of Amsterdam. Additionally, the “Gateway to Europe,” as the Netherlands is also known, has taken a leadership position in the implementation of agriculture technology.

“In the Netherlands, agriculture is a high-tech business. Technology has turned our small country into the world’s second-biggest exporter of agricultural products and services,” said Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a Sept. 2016 speech.

-Gerelyn Terzo

Gerelyn is a regular contributor to GAI News. She has been writing about institutional investing and asset management for the majority of her career and has developed a focus on agriculture given the global scale of the industry’s relevance and importance.