Pictet Funds, the fund distribution company of the Swiss private bank Pictet & Cie, is launching an agriculture fund on 29 May. The PF (Lux) Agriculture fund will be managed by Gertjan van der Geer, a senior investment manager at Pictet.

The fund is the latest addition to Pictet’s range of thematic products, which includes water, timber, clean energy, security, biotech, digital communication, generics and premium brands. The fund provides access to quoted companies that are expected to play a vital role in helping to supply food for a global population that is predicted to grow by nearly 40 per cent between 2005 and 2050 according to a December 2007 World Bank estimate. The fund will not make investments in soft commodities.

A number of investment firms and wealth managers, such as rival Swiss house Sarasin, have launched agriculture funds in recent years to capture what is seen as strong growth for such products, fuelled by rising population, greater living standards and demand for biofuels.

“Though investors have long been drawn to agricultural commodities, agriculture as a whole, from the production and conditioning to the transportation of agricultural products, has long been ignored as an area for strategic investment,” said Mr van der Geer.

“Building on Pictet’s environmental franchise, the fund will invest in an industry that enjoys stable long term growth determinants in the form of higher yield and efficiency requirements,” he said. “Nearly 70 per cent of agricultural production gets lost from the farm to the table. Reducing this inefficiency will be crucial in meeting the demands of a growing population and expanding middle class. We believe that in order to deal with the scale of the challenge, the agricultural sector will have to invest in new technologies, processes and farming inputs.”

The PF (Lux) Agriculture fund’s investment process is geared towards resource efficiency, since stocks will be selected principally in terms of their agricultural exposure, favouring those companies that cause less stress on resources. Only the most efficient and sustainable inputs will be favoured.

The new fund will be included in Pictet’s recently launched PF (Lux)-Megatrend Selection, which comprises an equally weighted portfolio of Pictet’s thematic funds. Each of these investment themes identified by Pictet offers the opportunity to benefit from persistent, secular mega-trends based on changes in structural factors such as demographics, lifestyle and the environment. Such mega-trends have the potential for long-term growth, irrespective of short-term or speculative fluctuation, the firm believes.

The PF (Lux)-Agriculture fund is available to institutional, private banking and retail investors in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France Germany, Greece, Italy, Liechtenstein, Holland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

The Pictet Group, which is based in Geneva, employs more than 3,000 staff.