End of Year Message from New Forests’ CEO Mark Rogers
2024 has been a year of growth and challenges across the natural capital asset class with the New Forests and New Agriculture businesses facing both tail winds and head winds. It’s also been a year in which we have seen severe political unrest and geopolitical uncertainty across the globe, and major economies in flux.
Interest rates and, correspondingly, exchange rates have seen significant movements influencing financial outcomes for investors across the different asset classes. In the Asian region, China’s economic dominance has slowed as it deals with rising labour costs and a housing sector that has suffered over investment for several years. This has flowed through to commodity demands which have been lower for the last 12 months across a large number of commodities including in our sector, wood fibre.
The Australian agricultural sector in which New Agriculture operates has remained resilient with strong investment performance across our annual cropping and grazing assets. At the top line, the natural capital asset class has remained resilient with generally positive returns across our global platform with tail winds pointing to more favourable investment outcomes over the coming years. The sector also continues to position itself to solve the key environmental challenges facing the planet – carbon removals and reductions, and the repair of nature.
To read Mark’s reflections on the market trends over the past year, and what’s in store for 2025, download the insights here.
