The largest fund to invest in European farmland will be launched on Monday, signalling investors’ growing appetite for alternative ways to profit from a long-term rise in agricultural commodity demand and prices.

The farmland fund, set up by Germany-based Palmer Capital Partners and UK-based Bidwells, is expected to raise about €300m ($425m) to buy arable land in Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic. It will also invest in western Europe.