A $250 million agriculture and carbon platform has been launched in Australia, with Rio Tinto securing a foundation offtake agreement for carbon credits.
The platform, named Meldora, has been created through a $200 million investment from Canadian group La Caisse and $50 million from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).
It will be managed by Gunn Agri Partners and focus on combining large-scale farming with environmental plantings designed to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs).
Meldora’s first acquisition is a 15,000-hectare broadacre and irrigation property in Central Queensland. The platform aims to scale across diverse agricultural assets while embedding native vegetation restoration under the Environmental Plantings methodology, which requires projects to maintain plantings for 25 to 100 years. This structure is expected to provide long-term sequestration, biodiversity benefits, and access to premium carbon credit markets.
“This investment is a timely step toward advancing resilient, climate-smart agriculture in Australia,” said La Caisse’s Executive Vice-President and Head of Infrastructure and Sustainability, Emmanuel Jaclot.
“Teaming up once again with the CEFC and GAP – and with Rio Tinto as a foundation offtaker – reinforces our confidence in this platform’s ability to scale. It reflects La Caisse’s commitment to sustainable land use and our broader net zero ambition, as we position ourselves early in a growing market for high-quality carbon credits.”
CEFC Head of Natural Capital, Heechung Sung, said: “This initiative represents a long term investment in nature and land-based strategies in Australian agriculture… By adopting an integrated sustainable land management model, this strategy can produce high-quality agricultural commodities while also increasing biodiversity, improving ecosystems, and earning carbon revenues through the investment in native landscape restoration.”
Gunn Agri Partners joint Managing Director, Bradley Wheaton, described Meldora as “uniquely ambitious in integrating the restoration of native vegetation in the landscape of an institutional-quality agricultural investment. Through diversification across irrigation, dryland cropping and carbon credit generation, the investment model redefines the future of farming.”