MERCEDES, Uruguay--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Land Group is today announcing its formal launch, after several years of operating in stealth.
The Land Group acquires, transforms, and operates farmland - employing regenerative approaches to deliver consistent, financially compelling, and environmentally sustainable investment returns and asset appreciation. Partnering with sophisticated investors, The Land Group offers uncorrelated returns through asset management and operational services.
Founded in 2016 by Francisco Roque de Pinho and Joaquín Labella, The Land Group currently operates 40,000 hectares of farmland across eight properties in Uruguay and Paraguay, with plans for expansion beyond South America in 2025.
Regenerative strategies driving high-value farmland
As both asset managers and farmland operators, The Land Group focuses on cutting-edge regenerative agricultural practices that enhance farmland productivity and sustainability. A stand out practice is adaptive multi-paddock grazing—a dynamic rotational grazing system applied at scale to over 12,000 cattle on eight farms in the Uruguayan savanna. This nature-inspired approach more than doubles cattle stocking rates, boosting efficiency and profitability while restoring soil health and ecosystems.
In addition to adaptive grazing, The Land Group uses cover cropping, crop rotation, agroforestry, and rainwater harvesting to further optimise resource efficiency.
The Land Group’s commitment to regenerative agriculture yields highly nutritious, carbon-neutral grass-fed beef, offering a sustainable alternative to grain-fed beef from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). By aligning economic, environmental, and social impacts, The Land Group delivers strong returns while fostering a future-focused farming system.
Aligning profitability with long-term value
With extensive experience in revitalising distressed agricultural operations, The Land Group maximises the potential of underutilised resources to enhance yields and capital appreciation. Practices like adaptive grazing and soil regeneration ensure land productivity remains sustainable over time, contributing to capital appreciation and reduced risk of degradation.
By managing land acquisition, transformation, and operations in-house, The Land Group eliminates typical conflicts of interest found in traditional farmland investment models. This fully integrated approach ensures alignment between short-term profitability and long-term asset enhancement, offering a cohesive and conflict-free investment solution for institutional, family office, and fund investors.
Francisco Roque de Pinho quote: “At The Land Group, we generate sustainable investment returns for clients by farming regeneratively on South America's natural grasslands. We specialise in producing highly nutritious, ethically-reared, carbon-neutral, grass-fed beef at scale. This offers a compelling alternative to the harmful grain-fed beef produced in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and the highly-processed plant-based or lab-grown meat substitutes often promoted as a silver bullet solution to the agricultural sector’s environmental challenges.”
Joaquin Labella quote: “We arrived at regenerative farming in an unexpected, circuitous way. We began our business in 2016, turning around distressed agricultural investments. As we stabilised the operations we took over, we sought ways to improve the health of the farmland we operated. One approach we followed was introducing rotational cattle grazing on depleted crop soils—well before we were familiar with the term 'regenerative agriculture.' As we became more proficient, we optimised our approach by implementing increasingly more efficient dynamic grazing systems. It became clear that regenerative farming was a natural extension of our efforts; we have since fully embraced it.”
Roberto Vitón, Director of Valoral Advisors in Luxembourg and a global expert in food and agriculture investments, explains that "natural grasslands represent a crucial ecosystem in the South American plains and an important economic resource that has historically been underappreciated by investors. However, with advancements in regenerative grazing, it is now possible to sustainably and efficiently produce some of the world’s finest beef with a carbon-neutral footprint. This creates a compelling opportunity for farmland investments in natural grasslands, combining financial returns with environmental stewardship."
Prior to founding The Land Group, Francisco Roque de Pinho led several ventures in real asset management, including in renewable energy. Francisco, an avid big wave surfer, is the co-founder of Associação Red Herrings, a leading surfing team in Nazaré, on the Portuguese coast.
Fellow co-founder Joaquín Labella, who has been working with Francisco for the past twelve years, is native to Uruguay and regularly travels to The Land Group’s regenerative agriculture sites across South America.
