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Opalesque Exclusive: Craton Capital’s agriculture-focused fund, with a decade of +25% annualized returns, looks to invest in chain reactions from increased global demands on food supply Kirsten Bischoff, Opalesque New York: Craton Capital was launched in 1998 and currently has about $50m in assets. Craton uses a value investing strategy to buy portions of both public and private companies with a focus on the agricultural sector. Investing in the entire agriculture chain, from dirt to dinner table (seed/fertilizer, to processors/ branded food companies to restaurants/grocery chains), the managers have returned annualized performance of +25% for 10 years and YTD performance for 2008 is +11% through May 30th.

“In the field” philosophy Hedge fund centers such as New York, London, and Singapore are conducive to raising assets, meeting potential investors, and gauging the financial market vibrations. So where do you locate when you view yourself as much a part of the agricultural industry as the hedge fund industry?

When Portfolio Manager Ejnar Knudsen looks out the window of Craton’s Goshen, CA office, the landscape is dotted by a grain elevator, a feedmill, an ethanol plant, a dairy, and undulating fields of wheat, corn and cotton crops. “Our location allows us to talk to the traders at the feedmill as they make decisions to procure over $600 million of grain for animals and ethanol plants….Cra......................

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