#40 - The $8 TRILLION Secret - Why Savvy Investors Are Buying Farmland

[00:00:00] The information contained herein is intended to help the viewer successfully navigate common IRS and Department of Labor requirements to help achieve successful results from their IRA. The information is not intended to replace information from your legal counsel or income tax professional. IRA Club does not offer or sell any investment. All investments have risk. This is the Investor's Row Podcast powered by the IRA Club. Alternative investing reimagined. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just getting started,

[00:00:27] we're here to empower you to take control of your financial future and unlock the power of your self-directed retirement accounts. Let's get started. Welcome back to another Investor's Row Podcast with your host Kasia Baldus. You know, in today's ever-changing world, there are so many great investment opportunities that we're always talking about in the podcast, in particular, the alternative investment world.

[00:00:51] You name it. It could be anywhere from AI, technology, data centers, basically, you know, life settlements, oil and gas deals, mineral rights, precious metals. But it's, we've never had anybody, right, during our podcast ever talk about agriculture and how agriculture could possibly be part of one's portfolio.

[00:01:14] And yes, you know, I will say that everybody needs to eat, as we all know. And agriculture isn't being replaced by AI or the individuals that are going to be talking about the specific subject are no strangers to it. They've been around for decades.

[00:01:34] And one of the things that I'm super excited to talk about is a possibility for a true agricultural turnkey investment opportunity with a company called Plantations International. And joining me today is both Mario and Rashid. And by the way, gentlemen, I thank you for your time because I know you guys are both across the world. Mario, I believe you're in Greece and Rashid, you're in, forgive me. Malaysia.

[00:02:04] Kuala Lumpur. And you, is it, I'm assuming it's nighttime right now. And I, again, thank you for taking the time. And you guys are no strangers again to what it is that you do in your space. And we're super excited to be talking about this because this could be an opportunity for somebody to take a portion of their retirement account and possibly diversify in this asset class.

[00:02:29] And your investment opportunity is very unique because it is open to both accredited and non-accredited investors. And I'm not going to steal any of your thunder. We're going to talk about that a little bit later in the, in the podcast and in the show. So without further ado, I want you to tell me both of you, your story, how you got started, why agriculture, right? And then, and then, and then lead it into Plantations International.

[00:02:56] And to the both of you again, thank you for the time, the opportunity. I think this is going to be a great podcast to learn more about something we have not spoken about. So Mario, if you don't mind, we'll start off with you, buddy. Basically, I've been in, I'm 57 years old. I've been into, I've been in agriculture since I was four, since my dad had me, since my dad had me working out in the fields. Yeah. And my grandfather before him. Yeah.

[00:03:21] We started off as tobacco farmers in East Africa. Really? Yeah. In, in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and East Africa. And we grew tobacco for many, many years. And when I took over the company 20 odd years ago, I got us out of the tobacco business because tobacco business, number one, it's, it's not nice.

[00:03:48] And number two, there's, it's not that very, it's not that profitable. There's only a few companies that you could sell to. There's only like three cigarette companies like Philip Morris, BAT and RJ Reynolds, and they squeeze you for price. Really? Yeah. So, so what I decided to do is I decided to get us into the food business. Right?

[00:04:07] So from, from agriculture, something that was replensable every year is that, that there is, that there's no monopoly, that isn't, that there's no upstream monopolies that can, that can squeeze you on price. Right. Now, out of, out of everything in the food business, you got two types, you got two types of, you got the agriculture sector. You have, you have a couple types.

[00:04:29] You have what's called the fast turnover crops, such as like cabbage and carrots and stuff that turns over in six months, potatoes, leeks and cotton, you know, soybeans, stuff, a lot of stuff they grow in America. Okay. Right? But what's more profitable than those is what they call the perennial trees, stuff that, stuff that takes a few years to grow. Right?

[00:04:52] Like, like avocados, like mangoes, like durian, stuff that there's time to market of three, four years lead time. Yes. And therefore, and therefore it's harder, it's harder to get into that business. And therefore it's more profitable. Interesting. Right. Yeah. So, and, and the, and the good thing, and the good thing is that mangoes is actually one of the world's most concerned, consumed fruit. It's our specialty.

[00:05:23] Yes. Everybody loves mangoes. I do. Yeah. And my seven month old son can obviously at this point live without him because he's, he's definitely taking advantage of mangoes. Yeah. And we're, and currently we're the largest mango grower in Thailand. We, uh, yeah, we have seven huge plantations under management with two more under development. Right. Now, before I continue, I'd like, I'd like, I think of the audience, the word plantation in America might have a little bit of a negative connotation. I heard, I heard a little bit. Yes.

[00:05:53] Uh, I'd like to explain the difference between a plantation and a farm. Okay. Yeah. A farm is when somebody has multiple crops, like when he's doing like cotton, he's doing bananas. He has, he's there. They're doing multiple things and they have livestock. Yeah. Yeah. A plantation is a single, uh, crop yields. Yes. It's just, you're just doing one item and that's it. I know. Okay. You just taught me something new. I had no idea. All right.

[00:06:22] So, you know, just for the terminology purposes of it. Yes. So, yeah. So, so when, when I say, when we say, when you hear the word plantation, that means they're only doing one item. They're doing bananas. They're doing cotton. They're doing. And that's the specialty. That's it. Which is in this case. Yeah. When, but when they mix items together, that becomes a farm. Got it. Got it. Something. Okay. That's new. So, okay. Got it. Your specialty one item. That's the reason why it's called that, which is mango trees, right? For game.

[00:06:50] And, and that's the reason why it's called a plantation versus a farm. So, honestly, that's something intriguing that I never knew about. So, pretty cool. And, and we, and we specialize in trees, you know, because, you know, we specialize in trees. We specialize in three types of trees. We specialize in mango trees, durian trees, and agarwood trees, right? The, the first, the first two are for food. And there are agarwood trees that we specialize in. It's for the fragrance industry. They make an oil called oud oil that's used in the fragrance industry. Yes?

[00:07:20] But the, and all three of them are very, it's a very difficult business to get into because you need, it's very capital intensive because you got, because it takes four years to harvest. And yeah, and you don't have that capital for those four years for, to fund a huge operation until you get to harvest. There's a huge reward at harvest time, but it's at four years of, at initial four years of debt time, they, they have to make it through in order to get to harvest. Yeah.

[00:07:46] And once you get through that four years and you are in the harvest stage, is it, please forgive me for somebody that's oblivious to this, this asset class. Is it like, is, is harvest now repetitive? Is it annually? Is it semi-annually? Is it? Annual sometimes it's twice a year. Yes. Depending on, depending on the, on the rain and the season. Now it's at least once a year, but sometimes it's twice a year. Okay. Right. Depending, depending on the, depending on the climate factors, obviously nature. Yes. We harvest at least one time a year. And then, and then we harvest.

[00:08:16] And since our plantations are in Thailand, our market, we have the biggest market in the world, China. China. We're close to 2 billion mouths to feed almost. Right? Now China has built since China has built. Have you heard of the, uh, Belt and Road initiative? Please forgive me. Basically what they've done, they've all the neighboring countries, they've built ports and railways to go directly to all the neighboring countries just to import foods. Right?

[00:08:45] So basically they have a fast train going from China to Laos into Thailand just, and it goes twice a day. Food, food goes one way and cheap junk comes the other way from China. Yeah. Yeah. Got it. T-boost stuff, you know? Right? So, uh, but the, and they have a never ending hunger. They take, they literally take everything we could produce, not just from Thailand, from Laos, from Vietnam, from all the neighboring countries.

[00:09:14] And they just, and it's just a, it's a very in demand fruit, the mango in China, very much so. So if you don't mind me asking, before we jump in, Rashid, welcome to the party, right? Uh, you're a little bit quiet on the side, on the side note, but how did you get called if you don't mind me asking and how did you and Mario meet? Yes. A very, very good question. Again, guys, thank you for having us on. Um, pleasure.

[00:09:42] Um, yeah, so my background is, is finance and economics. Um, had quite a prolific background in finance for quite a number of years before I decided to take a little bit of a sabbatical actually, and, and, uh, get out the corporate world. Um, little bit cutthroat, uh, didn't like the lifestyle to say the least. Um, came to Malaysia.

[00:10:08] Um, I was raised, uh, um, in, you know, in a very cultural family. So moving to Malaysia and, uh, really fall in love with, with the culture over there kind of gave me, um, kind of new, new, a new start, new beginning and, um, kind of fell in love with the, the, the culture in Malaysia and the people. And, uh, I, I worked for some interesting people in, in Europe who, who happened to put

[00:10:37] me together with Mario and, uh, you know, that was about 10 years ago. And, um, my role within the company is to kind of steady the ship, um, keep the, uh, the numbers running through, um, and, uh, making sure, you know, everything gets done properly. And, uh, you know, we always need that one guy. Yeah.

[00:11:04] We always need that one person right in the company that's always keeping, keeping everybody straight. Right. So, and trust me, even in my, this company, IRA club, there's a few people that are always trying to keep me straight, but you are really essentially the point of contact. So for those IRA club members that are possibly listening to this podcast, you handle basically all of the investments, right? Whether it's personal funds or retirement funds. Um, I know a lot of IRA club members have directly reached out to you, right. And you help navigate and explain everything to them.

[00:11:34] And, and you know why this is a $8 trillion industry is, you know, number one is, is absurd. I had no idea it was that big of an asset class. Number one, two, why would you not want to incorporate right? Um, a portion of once retirement dollars into this type of asset classes is clearly not going anywhere because everyone again has to eat. So why do you, you know, why do you think people would kind of throw this to the wayside as a potential investment opportunity?

[00:12:03] I think it's down to what people perceive as, as interesting. Uh, people would like to invest in things that interest them. Um, let's be brutally honest here. A tree in the ground, um, doesn't really show a lot of interest. Right. Um, but I think fundamentally when, when you look at things, um, what I like about agriculture

[00:12:30] is, as you said, people do need to eat, but when, when, when, when you really strip things back, um, you look at what's happened in, in the U S right now. I mean, food prices have gone up by a third of the last five years. Inflation is probably between four to 6%. So that's probably 4.2. It actually just came out yesterday or going to, yeah. And I think that's a little bit on the low side, by the way. Yeah. It's a very conservative number. They're very conservative. Absolutely.

[00:12:58] And you know, as, as, as anyone else who's got a family, you know, you've, you've only got to really measure food prices, what you're paying in the supermarkets now to what you paid a year ago. And those shopping bags are getting fewer now with the, with the budget that you use every week and every month. So I think over the next sort of 10 to 20 years, we're expecting another 2 billion people on the planet.

[00:13:24] Um, and you know, food is going to be a major, major concern for, for, for the global economy. And, um, I think, uh, you know, people should open up to that really. Um, and I think food agriculture will get a lot more mainstream. And I think personally, we're just the, the, the trendsetters for it, to be honest with you. And I think people will follow suit in time.

[00:13:51] Um, well, listen, it's no, I know you guys are a worldwide company, right? And it's, it's, there's no denying, right. That, that we've seen the impacts here in the U S right. Farmers are struggling. Um, everything has gone through the roof. You mentioned inflation, gas prices, right. That have basically affect everything right here in the U S and not just the U S but the world. Um, do you, is this why you consider food as, as a, a great potential investment opportunity?

[00:14:21] Um, and in my personal opinion, it's a great opportunity, especially again, because we specialize in retirement accounts here to off when we talk about offsetting inflation, right? Having a hard, tangible asset inside a retirement account, like what it is that you guys are doing. And in my personal opinion, a good cause, right? Like you said, there's a real crisis that is approaching everybody and not just in the U S but globally.

[00:14:46] You know, do you think that this specific type of investment opportunity could be very lucrative, right? To, to, to one and Mario, I know that you were about to chime in, so I didn't mean to cut you off, but please, both of you, either one of you, can you elaborate a little bit on that? Yeah. First of all, you know, a lot of people don't realize that agriculture is not a trillion dollar asset class. It's an eight trillion dollar asset class. Number one. Yes.

[00:15:15] Now, now, now when we say it's an eight trillion dollar asset class, it's not, it doesn't have an eight trillion dollar market cap. Like, like you say, like a company would it's, it's eight trillion dollars every year renewable. So every January it starts from zero and it does eight million dollars in business every single year since the beginning of time. And a lot of people, and you, and you said, why don't more people invest in agriculture? It's because they don't know. When you said, like, like when you say asset classes to people, they'll, they'll tell you

[00:15:42] stocks, they'll tell you commodities, they'll tell you crypto. They'll tell you real estate. You can search what they're interested in and what they know. Yeah. Is, is, is, is, the words right out of my mouth. They invest in what they know and, and they don't realize that this is an actual investment opportunity. You know, you know who does now? Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Bill Gates is the largest farmland owner in America. There's a reason for that. Yeah.

[00:16:11] You just made a trillion dollars year after year. Every year, every year over $80 billion in of institutional money is pouring into the agriculture sector from BlackRock, from the big boys. They're corner, they're cornering all the arable farmland in the world. And as Ress said, is not only that the world is growing in population. What, what's that? What that, what that doing? All these extra amount, these 2 billion mouths are going to compete for the food, but also

[00:16:39] they're also competing for other resources like land. So not only is food, the demand for food going up, but the land is going down to make way for the people. Yes. True story. All these people need more food, they need more land, and they may need more water. Yes. And let's, let's, and talking about the big elephant in the room, which is inflation. Yes. Inflation ain't going, this 4 point, this 4.2 number you said is fictitious. Just ask your wife when she goes to the supermarket, is it 4.2 darling?

[00:17:08] She's going to say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. And especially my kid's celiac. So you could add an extra 30% to that. No, absolutely not. I feel like when I walk out of the grocery store spending $300, I got two bags and I look at my wife, I'm like, really? Where's the rest of it? So to your point, yes. The reality of the fact is, I firmly believe that we are living in a different world than we were in the pre-COVID times. Yes? True story.

[00:17:35] It's not only inflation, it's corporate price gouging. And I know what's, and I see what's going on. I see the price of fertilizer that we're paying right now tripled in the past year. Tripled. Yeah. Yes? You know where it comes from? Iran and Russia. The number one fertilizer producers in the world. Yes? And Mario, you may not know this about me and I've never, I really don't talk about it that often. I actually come from the hospitality world, right?

[00:18:03] And my, one of my uncles, Manny, he actually owned a few pizzerias here in the Chicagoland area that I was very much affiliated with, especially when we launched our wine bar. But the reason why you're saying it, I'm taking to what you're saying better yet at heart. I remember a bag of flour that used to cost literally $15 is now costing 80, 90. He told me the other day, a box of tomatoes are at 110. I go, what for a box of tomatoes?

[00:18:31] So, and it isn't going anywhere. You're a hundred percent right. And how much is he charging for his pizzas now? You know, how much is he charging for his pizzas now? How many customers is he not getting in now because of the price of his pizzas? You know? The good, the good news. Here's the good news. You want to know the good news here? The good news is when our, our clients and our investors, when they, when they, when they actually own trees with us, they actually now are food producers during the food production side.

[00:19:00] So the more inflation goes up, the more prices go up, the more money they everybody makes. Makes. Yep. So as now you're on the side of the house, you got inflation working with you and for you. Yes. So it's $3 a kilo, $4 a kilo, $5 a kilo. With the more we, the higher price we sell at the higher returns we return to our clients. Well, to your point, this is a good segue to jump into it. And you mentioned that corporations, right?

[00:19:30] Um, Warren buffet, these large institutions that are all investing to main street, right? It's very, to your point, we don't understand it. We don't know that we could do it. And that's what you guys at plantations international bring to the table. So let's talk about that a little bit. You are actually giving the average American here in the U S the opportunity to invest in this asset class agriculture in particular. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[00:20:00] Mango trees. Correct? Yes. So let's talk about that. What is the investment opportunity? What was that process like? Cause I know you guys were both, you know, um, very familiar with the concept overseas and and, and, and what, you know, over here, it's a whole nother set of rules and regulations when it comes to investing. In particular, when you're launching a fund and in your case, a reggae fund, which I know is, is very hard to do. So let's talk about how an individual.

[00:20:31] Could invest. And, uh, basically what you guys created a turnkey product because you guys are doing all the work from beginning to end from the planting, the agricultural, to taking care of it, to the, to the, to the selling, to all of it across. It's just a 360 degree view. So let's talk about that a little bit. All right. Sure. First of all, what separates us from most, from other, from a lot of other investments out there on the market today is that we're not a startup.

[00:21:02] We've been going for years and years and years. The product, the product, the machine is rolling. Yes. Yeah. And, and this is, and just as capital, and this is a capital raise we decided to do in America. We could do to pop to do to very popular demand from, from our American clients. Yes. Right. We set up a reg, we set up a reg deep participation agreement where our clients invest. Sorry. I use the word clients, investors. Yes. Yeah. Uh, and, and invest in tree units.

[00:21:30] They could buy 10, a hundred, 50, 200 as much, you know, at a, at a, at a fixed price. We manage them for them, fully managed from A to Z for, for the entire 25 year term. And every year they get every year do from the harvest to get annual passive income. So let's be clear. So the first four years, remember when you're making this investment, the first four year, the, you know, it's got to grow. It's got to produce. Right. So yes. All right.

[00:21:58] For the first four years, what we do, we, we have some called intercropping where we plant fast turnover, high crops between the tree saplings for the first four years. So they turn over every six months or years. So there's a small income for the first four years that they're getting. Nice. Okay. Yes. So they get, so they actually get income from year one. Yeah. From the intercropping. It's small, but it's better than nothing. It's comparable. It's comparable to what the bank gives. Yes. More or less. Right. Yeah.

[00:22:25] But the big money starts after four, after our four years and then it grows exponentially as the tree, as the tree gets bigger and starts producing and it's, and it's fully managed. Right. Right. And, and they, and they just get the returns every single year, like clockwork. And the beauty of this is number one, not only is it a tangible asset that they could go on, they see how they can, they can log into the client, uh, the portal and they get reports and everything about, about how, how it's growing.

[00:22:54] But we actually invite, we actually invite investors out to come see it, to come see it. As you should. Right. Yeah. We, anybody who invests with us, we'll give them four nights accommodation complimentary in Thailand to come out and actually see, see what they invested in. We want people to come out and see it. It's so beautiful. It's so amazing. Yeah. And, and, and Rashid, you were in a chime in on something. Forgive me. Yeah. It's just, it was, it was just, just, you know, you know, really following on from, from

[00:23:21] what Mario said, you know, what I always say to, to, to, um, investors on, on the phone, just so they, just so it's simplified to them is you're effectively running your own business. You know, it's your plantation and we profit share, you know, you get 80% of, of, of, of, of the profits. We get 20% and we, we manage everything for you from planting stage, daily management, upkeep harvest. And of course we, we sell your, your produce to the major end consumer markets.

[00:23:51] Um, and you know, that's essentially like you go in doing your research, looking at an area that you want to do a project, you get your farmers, you get your infrastructure, you, you pay 20% of your profits. Obviously you're going to take the lion's share cause it's your business and everything works harmoniously, you know? So I love that you, I love that you said that, um, because that was going to be a follow up question is like, how, how is it that Plantations International makes money? You guys obviously are not doing this number one for free.

[00:24:20] Obviously it's a good cause. It's everybody's involved with each other. Right. But I wanted to ask a personal question. Let's just say I own, you know, here in the Midwest, right? Chicago, mostly I own 16 residential units, right? You talked about it being a hard, tangible asset. Let's be fair. Now all of my tenants are great, right? Let's just say I, or I'll give you another analogy. Let's say tenant moves out, stays vacant for three, four or five months. Right.

[00:24:49] Is this the same concept with the trees? Let's just say if you're planting 50, a hundred trees, I'm asking out loud, not all the trees are going to produce. Well, all right. Mario's looking right at me with a big smile. Go ahead. Fire away. You know, the beautiful part about this is we're only letting investors come into a very small part of our trees. Yes. Less than, less than three, less than three. We're this, this, this fund that this raise that we're doing with the Eric, it's all as a small $10 million raised 20,000 trees. Yes.

[00:25:20] Very, very small. Yeah. Okay. We have tens of thousands of other trees that if anything happens to the trees that are, that are in the fund, I'm sorry, not the fund into the, in the program. Yeah. We, we, we instantly replace them with other trees that we have growing. So let's say they don't produce, they, they, they, trees die. They do. It's not true. Yes. Yes. They, you know, they don't, they don't fruit. They get re they get replaced from what we call buffer stock or our stock.

[00:25:48] We replace the trees that are in the program with other, with other producing trees. So this is way we can, we can guarantee a 100% production. So almost it's like insurance, it's like an insurance product, right? If you think about it, like, so, you know, one of your properties will get you another tenant, you know? Yeah. Well, in this case, I would say the tenants there are waiting in the, in the back room. Yeah. We got, you got, you got, you got like 50,000 trees on the backside that nobody could see just ready to go.

[00:26:16] So no, I, I, I'm not laughing out loud because I try to explain to people if you're using your IRA dollars, right. To invest, let's just say in this house on one, two, three green street. Well, what do you have to protect your IRA, right? Insurance. So if the house burns down, the insurance is going to pay back your IRA. You guys are basically saying you have the same concept because you have all of these trees already produced, ready to go. If God forbid one of them or two of them or three of them, you know, die, you could automatically replace them.

[00:26:45] So we don't like to always use the words cause there's no guarantees in life. It doesn't matter what it is, but it just like you not having a tenant, let's just say, hypothetical scenario for two or three years. Obviously that affects your ROI. This could kind of be the same concept, Mario. Right? So it takes some time to get it back to what it was. So it's not only that is it like a harvest guarantee program that we have like a, almost like an internal insurance program without using the word insurance. Yeah.

[00:27:12] But then on top of that, we actually had, do have actual insurance. Yeah. From a, from a Lloyd's broker for replanting in case of catastrophe. Yes. So, so you, it's like, so you got, so it's like you have, you have basically a backup plan and on top of the backup plan, we actually do have insurance. Yeah. So we have a backup plan and a backup plan for the backup plan for the backup plan. That's awesome. That's so, so let me ask you, we mentioned a little bit earlier before the show, right?

[00:27:43] Before we even jumped on is, is, is this open to anybody here in the U S anybody could invest in the U S with you guys? Yeah. Right now we're targeting mostly accredited investors. Our non-accredited investor program is going to launch slowly, but right now it's open it to accredited investors. Uh, if they need more information, they can go to our website, plantations international.com. Okay. Yeah. And go ahead. I'm sorry. Forget it. And they can read about it.

[00:28:11] We have our, our mango plantations, uh, currently have received a revenue valuation from a top 10 auditing and accounting firm. Uh, a projected revenue valuation of over $400 million. Yes. For their lifespan, which is something we're quite proud of. And we're, and we're going to get that up to hopefully up to a billion dollars within the next, uh, three, four years, which, which not, which not many agricultural companies have that type of assets under management outside of the United States.

[00:28:41] Yes. And, and my next question was going to be, um, so for the accredited investors, uh, you did mention this was a regulation D what is it structured as a 506 E? Please forgive me. Yes, it is. Awesome. Great. So that's great. So my next question is going to be, what's the minimum if you wanted to invest in the reg D offering? $10,000. How much? Forgive me. $10,000. Oh, okay. So if you don't mind me asking, I know you're launching a reg A offering as we discussed

[00:29:10] a little bit earlier, and that's very shortly coming up. It's in the pipeline for non-accredited investors. Yes. So basically anybody and everybody. So what's that, what's that minimum? If you don't mind me asking. Uh, I think it'll be about two, three grand possibly we were still structuring it. So that, so that's, so think about this for those that are listening, right. That want to use a portion of their retirement dollars, right. Uh, whether you're accredited or non-accredited, right.

[00:29:38] Coming soon that you maybe just want to have that conversation with, with Rashid and Mario, visit plantations, international.com. Um, and just obviously I was tell people do their due diligence review, read, understand, network, talk to each other. Um, cause that's one of the main reasons why we do, uh, the Investor's Row Podcast is just to get the word out that something like this, that most of you may not think is available to you is actually available to you, right. As an investment opportunity.

[00:30:05] This is the benefits of, of doing something like this now. Um, sorry, just on what you were saying as well. Um, you know, for, for the listeners out there, you know, your 401ks and your IRAs are for your future savings. So, you know, at plantations international, we do promote generational wealth and, you know,

[00:30:30] be being involved in this space for many years, I've always understood a lot of investors, when they look at stocks, equities, these are fast turnaround investments, right? So you, you invest, you get your profit, that profit goes very quickly. Cause cause subconsciously you're investing in a quick, quick return. So you, so the money goes back, goes out. You, you, you, you, you, but agriculture is a long play.

[00:30:56] So, you know, you're getting your income every year because it's a long term investment. Chances are you don't spend that money. You let that build. So it's not just about you anymore. You know, it's about your loved ones. It's about your children. Start to look at the next five, 10, 15 years. And before you know it, you know, you've got a nest egg there. Having a nest egg in this day and age gives you options.

[00:31:21] And, you know, where food prices we've all, we've all seen the way global economies are now. Families need options. They need to have all of money at their own disposal. You know, whether there's a family emergency, God forbid another COVID people lose their work. So these are the opportunities that we want to present to the world to give people more flexibility with their families and their futures.

[00:31:49] And that's what self-directing is all about. Giving you the flexibility to invest in, in things just like this. Like you mentioned, I'm one of the biggest advocates of talking about generational wealth. And, and that's exactly what this could potentially be for somebody. Right. And you're talking about yearly cash flow, right? Where market volatility is very uncertain now more than ever. And I also tell people, because again, we talk a lot about retirement accounts here.

[00:32:17] You know, you got to look at things decade by decade. And if you know that you can't touch the funds within your retirement account until you're 60 years old, why not take, as, as Mario said, $10,000 as an investment opportunity to do something like this. And again, for a good cause, right? Because everybody needs to eat at the end of the day. And, and I think this is a great asset class to be looking into.

[00:32:42] And if you look at the greater picture, you're also leaving a carbon footprint for the future generations as well. I love that. I really do love that. So I'm going to, I'm sorry, go ahead, Mario. Yeah. I just want to say, what a lot of people don't know, it's not only a great asset class, it's a safe asset class. It's recession proof completely. Yeah. It's out of the four last market crashes, the major ones. The only one that did well was agriculture.

[00:33:09] If you look at the COVID lockdown, what was open? Supermarkets and pharmacies. The essentials, the things you need to live. Yeah. No matter what happens in the world, no matter who's president, no matter what war is going on, people always, always need food. It's not going to be replaced by AI. No technology is going to replace food. No, nothing. No, no shot. So again, if you wanted to learn more, right, Mario, you would go to?

[00:33:37] You'd go to plantationsinternational.com to visit our website. Or you could go to Mango Profits, to our landing page. Yes? Nice. And download directly our prospectus and our documents. And we also have an amazing, once you're in our system, we developed an amazing due diligence portal. Yes? With all the documents laid out perfectly so you can spend your time looking at them and make sure this is for you.

[00:34:07] And it is for you. And there will be a currently link there as well where you can speak directly to me as well. Well, how about the icing on the cake? If you're an actual investor, talk about due diligence. If you're an actual investor, go to Thailand. Mario, you said that. Four days. Four days. Anybody who invests no matter how big, how small, four days accommodation in Thailand. Paid for two people. Yeah. Paid by the company to come out and see what we're offering. Huh? You got to pay your flights. We don't pay the flights.

[00:34:36] I mean, I was about to say at $10,000. I mean, that might be the hotel. I'm like, wow. All right. You might want to up that minimum, by the way, Mario. If people are listening to this, they might take advantage of you for that reason alone. You know, you know, you know, you know how we do that? Because out of everybody that comes out, 80% of the people after they see it say, hey, we want more of this. Good. Yeah. Yeah. It's actually, that's actually another great. Yeah, I get it.

[00:35:02] When you see the infrastructure, when you really see what we're doing, it's like when you buy a house, you know, when you actually walk in that house and you look at it, you know, it becomes real. You know, you know, you know. Just out of curiosity, Rashida and Mario, do you guys on Plantations International or your other landing page, do you guys have actual like videos of the land with the trees like showcase? Do you guys? Of course.

[00:35:30] If you go to our YouTube page, there's tons of videos there of everything. All right. Okay. So there you go. The Plantations International YouTube page. I love it. So, um, I always like giving final thoughts to my co-hosts. If there's something Mario and Rashid you would like to say to our listeners, what would it be? Oh, well, you know, um, I know Rashid, you kind of went into it, but I, maybe I stole your thunder a little too early. That's fine.

[00:35:58] Um, if, if anyone, you know, can relate to what I was, when myself and Mario have been speaking about generational wealth and really trying to understand and have a bit of direction in your portfolio and something that you can, you can really harness for the future. Then, you know, check out Plantations International.

[00:36:20] You know, we've, we've, we've, we've been here long enough to manage people's expectations and really take people's finances to the next level. The returns are targeting right now, as it stands with the current rate of inflation and the current price targets. We're targeting about a 15, 16% return for our, for our investors right now. Yes. That's all. That's only going to grow with inflation. Yeah.

[00:36:46] And, and, and it might not sound like a lot compared to chasing the late, the latest AI craze or. Dot com bubble or crypto craze or whatever, but it's safe. It's safe and it's stable and it's not going anywhere and it's here to stay. I love that. You said that it's safe, stable, right? There's always this saying, our president always, Dennis Blitz always says slow and steady wins the race. Right. Um, yep.

[00:37:12] And within retirement accounts, uh, especially retirement accounts, I say, be always careful, right? What it is that you're investing in. This is your nest egg. So again, I think this is a great opportunity. Um, but you know, at the end of the day to the both of you, I appreciate what you guys both do. Right. That's how you and I, and all three of us hit it off with each other. Um, that's how we all met each other right at the end of the day. Not to mention we had an IRA club client that formally introduced us right over a year ago.

[00:37:41] And, and, um, so it's, it's been a pleasure working with the both of you. And for those that are also listening, they are on investors row. If you, so if you visit IRA club.com also want to learn a little bit more about plantations international, Rashid's calendar link is also on there. Contact us form, you know, do a little bit of due diligence. You can all click on their website. We, um, and also we, we, we know we have a webinar also in, and on there that you could also with a PowerPoint presentation that we could get in more details about the actual

[00:38:11] investment opportunity. But with that being said, that's what we're here to do right here at the investors row podcast to educate you on what's available, what's out there, especially in the alternative space. Um, feel free to join us at our next podcast, visit us at investors. Uh, I'm sorry, IRA club forward slash podcast for our next episode. And honestly, I always sometimes forget to say this dentist has written this great book,

[00:38:36] money, making ideas with your IRA and 401k, um, author of 17 books, check it out. I think it's a great way for you to learn on how to maximize your returns, right? Tax free tax deferred, reduce risk. And remember, Rashid said it, the future, right? Um, generational wealth. This is what it's all about. And that's what we're here to do. Gentlemen. Thank you until next time. Thank you, Ramis. Thank you very much. Very pleasure.