A soaring crop of soybeans and beef has helped boost rural land values in Uruguay, but the country is far from a property bubble. Prices have doubled since a decade ago, but brokers say they’ll stabilize in coming years.
Cattle based local 5b september tan bloomberg
A few years back, a group of investors including a savvy Uruguayan and a nimble German developed an idea that could make the nation an outsized player in global agriculture. They set up a cattle investment platform that bought calves and steers in the name of novice investors, who then paid the company a fixed annual income to manage them on their behalf.
Despite the hype, the company didn’t actually make much of a dent in Uruguay’s $2.5 billion a year cattle industry, although it did help boost exports by boosting grazing land.
The biggest gimmick was the marketing of the product. While it was the first of its kind, it was not as slick as some competitors’.
Another nifty tidbit was the fact that the company’s software program was the first of its kind in the country to track the performance of cattle based on their udder movements.
In a bid to get a leg up on competitors, Conexion Ganadera, launched in 2011, introduced a new version of the software that tracks a herd’s individual movement with the aid of artificial intelligence.
The software also offered a more lucrative bonus, allowing its users to purchase calf feed at a discount.
Other innovations were the creation of a virtual teleporter and a mobile app that enabled ranchers to find their way around the country’s rugged terrain on foot or in vehicles such as horse-drawn buggies.
While a few other companies have made the claim, none has been as big a hit in Uruguay as Conexion Ganadera. That is largely because the technology was designed to protect its clients’ personal data.
