€171 million for land, cattle and planes: a deal that reveals the differences between Australian and Lithuanian agriculture

Last month saw one of the largest livestock farm transactions in Australian history, with the Consolidated Pastoral Company's (CPC) acquisition of „Beetaloo“, „OT Downs“ and „Mungabroom“ cattle farm complexes.

This northern Australian farm was sold for more than €171 million. The deal involved more than 1 million hectares of land and a herd of around 90,000 cattle.

This "walk-in, walk-out" type of transaction means that the buyer took not only the land and livestock, but also all the equipment and infrastructure, including farm buildings, livestock sheds, residential and administrative buildings, workshops, warehouses, agricultural machinery, livestock transport and even the planes and helicopters that are used for the logistics of the farm.

„Beetaloo“ has been developed over many years by the Dunnicliff and Armstrong families, along with billionaire investor Brett Blundy, and is regarded as one of the best developed livestock farm complexes in northern Australia due to its sophisticated pasture fencing and millions of dollars of investment in a drinking water system that has enabled an increase in livestock numbers from around 20,000 to over 80,000 head of cattle by 2002.

The size of the syndor significantly enhances CPC's expansion, which now has a total land portfolio in Australia of more than 5.5 million hectares and a cattle herd in excess of 400,000 cattle, covering farms in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia.

This transaction also reflects a general trend in the Australian agricultural sector, where large investors and capital groups are taking over large farming operations, expanding infrastructure and optimising production processes in order to be more productive and competitive in global markets.

In the Lithuanian context, the scale of this transaction seems difficult to grasp. Lithuania has about 3.5 million hectares of agricultural land. In Lithuania, the price of a hectare of agricultural land often exceeds €4,000 to €5,000, and in some regions even more, while in northern Australia, the value of a hectare can be as low as a few tens or hundreds of euros, due to the extremely arid nature of the area, where fresh water is the most valuable asset.

If such an area with similar infrastructure were to be sold in Lithuania, it would theoretically be worth in excess of tens of billions of euros.