Eclectica predicts bubble in agriculture sector Tuesday 29th January 2008: 13:15 By Investment Week Eclectica, the boutique behind one of the few retail soft commodities funds, believes agriculture is shaping up to be a bubble-like opportunity. Manager Hugh Hendry pointed to the scarcity of stocks in the agriculture space and a positive macro-economic outlook as reasons for his bullishness. “We are identifying staple products of everyday life which have lost 80% to 90% in value in recent years,” he said. “It is becoming very hard to add more agricultural land. Western Europe and the US are full, while Asia is losing agriculture land through urbanisation. “Brazil is one area of growth, as is Eastern Europe, but the latter has not been invested in for 15 years.” CF Eclectica Agriculture fund invests in soft commodities shares rather than the futures contracts used in Schroders AS Agriculture.
