What do the Rothschilds, big wave surfing and cows have in common? Of course a Portuguese named Francisco Roque de Pinho.
Francisco was a former banker at Rothschild, the most famous European banking dynasties. For eight years he has quietly run an investment company that finances sustainable livestock grazing in South America. In his free time he is out to conquer The world's biggest surfable waves in Nazare, Portugal.
Today, Francisco reveals some of the secrets of his business life with the official launch of Land Group, a Lisbon-based €120 million investment vehicle that acquires and rehabilitates farmland using regenerative farming techniques.
“Regenerative agriculture typically results in lower production costs, higher yields, higher market prices and additional revenue streams such as carbon credits,” Francisco told TNW. “This is an attractive offer for investors.”
The Land Group focuses on producing “naturally raised, carbon-neutral, grass-fed beef” using adaptive grazing techniques. Here the animals are led alternately through several small paddocks so that the pastures can recover. The Land Group also uses methods such as intercropping, crop rotation, agroforestry and rainwater harvesting.
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Addressing the climate impact of agriculture
Land Group has already applied its regenerative approach to 40,000 hectares of farmland across eight properties in Uruguay and Paraguay. The company said its approach has been proven to more than double the amount of cattle you can keep on a piece of land while restoring soil and ecosystem health – by sequestering carbon dioxide.
Francisco believes the group's approach offers a “compelling alternative” in a global cattle farming industry that is responsible for this 15% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
The idea for The Land Group first came to Francisco over a decade ago when he met Uruguayan Joaquin Labella, who is responsible for managing and overseeing the project portfolio.
“We started our business in 2016 and turned around distressed agricultural investments,” Joaquin said. “One approach we took was to introduce rotational grazing on depleted farmland – long before we were familiar with the term ‘regenerative agriculture’.”
“As we became more proficient, we optimized our approach by introducing increasingly efficient dynamic grazing systems,” he continued. “It became clear that regenerative agriculture was a natural extension of our efforts; Since then we have fully embraced it.”
Now that Land Group has emerged from obscurity, it has set its sights on expanding in South America. Starting next year, she plans to invest in farms on other continents.
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