VanEck has announced the launch of the VanEck Future of Food ETF.
The actively managed equity ETF provides exposure to companies engaged in agri-food technology and innovation. VanEck say they have identified three proprietary pillars of the agri-food technology and innovation opportunity set:
Food Technology: alternative proteins, animal feed and nutrition, and sustainable aquaculture.
Precision Agriculture: vertical/indoor farming, robotics and automation, data collection and analysis, water and irrigation.
Agriculture Sustainability: seed genetics, sustainable and safe fertilizer and crop chemicals, and sustainable food preservation and packaging.
VanEck further noted the growing global population is driving the need for innovation as the population is expected to increase by 25% from 7.8 billion today to nearly 10 billion by 2050. More people are expected to enter the middle class than any time in history, accelerating anticipated consumption of protein and animal-based foods, which are resource-intensive to produce. By some estimates it may take as much as 70% more food production to feed this larger and wealthier population.