Institutional Investment in Farmland and the Restructuring of Australia’s Macadamia Nut Global Production Network
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: While the large-scale acquisition of agricultural land by institutional investors has been widely documented, it is less clear how these investments contribute to the restructuring of agri-food global production networks (GPNs). Recent developments in Australia’s macadamia nut industry illustrate a case in which large-scale farmland acquisition and development by institutional investors has consolidated network governance in upstream GPN segments and generated new value capture opportunities for an emergent class of locally owned subcontractor firms offering farm management services. This GPN reconfiguration has disrupted preexisting industry structures in which lead firm functions were executed by grower-owned processing companies. Although the precise dimensions of new GPN arrangements in this industry have not yet fully settled, the case of the Australian macadamia nut GPN serves to advance our understanding of the effects of large-scale institutional investment in farmland on network governance. In this case, at least, the significance of institutional investors lies not just as a new set of players injecting capital into the sector, but as active agents of change catalyzing widespread shifts in industry governance, power, and value capture. Importantly, this interpretation challenges conceptions of institutions simply as passive investors that extract profits from, but do not fundamentally seek to reorganize, the sectors in which they invest. Empirically, the case is significant because the Australian macadamia industry, part of a broader tree nut sector, is currently the focus for significant flows of global investment funds.
Source: Economic Geography
Institutions: The University of Sydney, Griffith University
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7123658334