Living Entrepreneurship Blog / Babson Entrepreneurs

Doing Business in the Agricultural Industry

On March 5, Patricio Dotras M’15 and Christian Bax M’15 joined members of the Butler Venture Accelerator to share their experience in the agricultural industry. They are currently in the process of creating a new project within BlackRock Farming with a goal to create a boutique private equity company specializing in commercial farms. Dotras and Bax both have experience in commercial farms industry through their family businesses. They have experiences in two different business model for managing the farm: leasing and managing the tenant farm and contract farming with various farmers.

According to Dotras and Bax American farmland is an incredible investment because it has a stable legal and regulatory system, competitive returns, and solid appreciation. They pointed out that many foreign investors are unaware of the opportunities of owning American commercial farms or the investors who are interested in purchasing face the heavy tasks of navigating through regulatory system and finding managers and operators they can trust.

Dotras and Bax suggested that there are significant opportunity in agricultural industry in America and encouraged people to keep their eyes on the opportunities.