I’ve recently moved out of the big smoke of Auckland to Te Puke for work in kiwifruit packhouses as a Coolstore manager.

Being more “rural” I’m surrounded by farms and orchards on the drive to work or around town. I studied horticulture and agribusiness at uni so have always had an interest in the sector and I’m doing research on the possibility of owning a farm or orchard one day.

Running the figures it looks like dairy and sheep/beef farming are only returning a 5-6% return on capital and kiwifruit much better at around 9-10%

Let’s say rural land goes up 4% a year and you are left with 9-10% and 13-14% returns respectively.

I can’t figure out for the life of me why someone would invest several million dollars and take the risks with pests, diseases, freak weather and be tied to the land 365 days a year for those returns. These are huge devastating risks in my opinion and the rewards don’t warrant it.

Why not just park the money in the sharemarket, kick back and enjoy market returns of 10-11% a year all whilst getting a pay check from others? I’m really baffled from what the figures are telling me.