Agriculture ETFs Continue to Grow

October 22, 2007 at 1:00 am by Tom Lydon

It’s been a good week for agriculture exchange traded funds (ETFs). After meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) late this week, the World Bank recently decided the best path for development is through agriculture, according to Rex Nutting for MarketWatch. While 75% of the world’s poor live in rural areas, only 4% of official development assistance goes to agriculture, according to the World Bank’s annual World Development Report. Growth in agriculture is about four times more effective in reducing poverty than growth in other sectors, the report said. To turn agriculture into an engine of growth, efforts must be made to increase productivity and to connect farmers to global markets, the report concludes.

Perhaps in response to the report’s news, agriculture futures rose late this week, led by gains in soybeans. For December deliveries, wheat, corn, oats all rose. November soybeans gained as well, the Associated Press reports.

It should come as no surprise that agriculture ETFs PowerShares DB Agriculture (DBA) and Market Vectors Agribusiness (MOO) rose in response to all the good news. Currently, DBA is up 12.5% for the last three months, having launched in January. MOO is up 13.7% for the month, having launched in August.