Black Soil’s Chang Sun postpones China agri fundraise

Sun launched the fund, which would be by some distance the largest in China's agribusiness space, late last year. It was intended to target the northern Chinese province of Heilongjiang, one of the world's three major soil zones with favorable organics for farming. Its major crops include corn, soybeans, rice and wheat.

Chinese agriculture is highly-fragmented and challenged by inefficiency and low productivity. One of the root causes is the dominance of small-scale farms, which are usually family-operated. Black Soil wants to drive consolidation by securing long-term leases over land from farmers and develop a US-style industrialized agriculture model.

This purpose has not changed, but Sun has shifted his focus to the operational side and is working on a deal-by-deal basis. This is largely due to a lack of high quality agribusiness deals in the market, plus a desire to build up a track record in the sector.

Black Soil has been involved in two projects since inception: a state-owned integrated potato processing and distribution company; and a rice producer, where the focus is on improving distribution channels and repackaging brands.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Fundraising
• Industrials
• Consumer
• China
• Black Soil Capital Partners
• Fundraising
• Agriculture
• Consumer