Merricks Capital provides innovative investment solutions that deliver consistent performance for its investors while operating with financial discipline and prudent risk.
Our investment strategies include private credit across commercial real estate, agriculture and infrastructure and specialised industrial.
Established in 2007, Merricks Capital delivers a truly differentiated multi-strategy offering, with extensive investment capability and global experience spanning multiple asset classes.
The Orchard Economy: Filling the Funding Gap in Australia’s $20bn Horticulture Sector
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Australia’s horticulture sector is becoming a cornerstone of agricultural value creation, and a growing opportunity for private credit to fill the funding gap for capital-intensive, land and water-backed assets.
After several years of export volatility, horticulture has emerged as one of the fastest-growing and highest-value agricultural sectors. Production value is forecast to reach a record $19.2bn in FY26, up 4%, and surpass $20bn by 2027 (ABARES). Horticulture now rivals meat and grains in total farm-gate value, driven by export-oriented production, strong Asian demand, and rising institutional investment.
Diversified export demand and productivity gains have sustained value growth, despite trade headwinds. Broader access to markets in India, Japan and Vietnam has reduced reliance on China, whilst advances in genetics, irrigation and protected cropping continue to lift yield and consistency.
Upfront capital intensity drives credit demand. Permanent crops often require three to five years of upfront investment before generating positive cashflow, creating a structural gap between bank appetite that requires income servicing and what private credit can bridge through tailored, asset-backed debt.
Asset quality in horticulture tends to have alternate uses, protecting against lender downside when at appropriate LVRs. We only deploy senior secured exposure against land, water entitlements and infrastructure. These provide tangible downside protection when coupled with disciplined underwriting and borrower selection.
Institutional activity is returning as global allocators deploy equity into sale-and-leaseback and platform structures after a subdued COVID period. Within Merricks Capital’s $700m agriculture credit portfolio, horticulture now represents $260m, up $40m over the past year. Importantly, the portfolio’s horticultural assets are largely mature, having completed capex programs in 2023-24 across avocados and cherries, limiting development risk.
Specialised credit capability and water expertise underpin execution. Horticulture’s dependence on irrigation makes water analysis essential to credit assessment. Through Regal Partners’ broader platform, Kilter Rural, Argyle Water and our long-standing partnership with Southern Cross Farms, the team integrates expertise across farm operations, water markets and structured credit, having managed more than $1.5bn in agricultural lending over the past decade. We remain structurally bullish on water rights as part of our security mix, typically 10–25% of total asset value, adding diversification and an additional layer of downside protection alongside the land value.
Australia’s horticulture sector reflects a broader shift among investors toward productive farmland and food supply chains across Australia and New Zealand. At a macro level, three themes continue to define the private-credit opportunity: population growth sustaining long-term demand for housing and infrastructure; global food demand underpinning agricultural credit; and the prospect of lower bond yields in 2026 positioning real assets to outperform. Across these, private-credit strategies continue to deliver differentiated returns, anchored by liquidity premium, real-asset collateral and disciplined downside protection.
