FOOD

Overview

Rize Sustainable Future of Food UCITS ETF (FOOD) tracks the Foxberry Tematica Research Sustainable Future of Food index and holds its constituents directly, a physical replication managed by Rize. Dividends are reinvested inside the fund rather than paid out, so FOOD suits investors building a position over time. The fund is domiciled in IE, which determines the withholding tax treatment applied to its dividends. Annual charges come to 0.45% of assets, and the fund holds 57M under management. Over five years the fund returned -8.9% a year on average, against 2.3% over three years. It is not eligible for the French PEA, but can be held in a securities account, a UK ISA or a German Depot. Its risk level is rated high. Launched on 2020-09-29, the fund is denominated in USD and has 6 years of track record. It is a UCITS fund, so it follows the European framework on diversification, liquidity and asset segregation. Because FOOD accumulates, nothing is taxed while the shares are held: the charge falls on disposal, against your capital gains allowance in a general account, and not at all inside an ISA or a SIPP. Domicile in IE sets the withholding the fund itself suffers on the dividends it receives, a cost absent from the stated fee but present in the return.

Ongoing charges of 0.45% place this fund 4th of 4 comparable funds, whose median is 0.20%. On £10,000 that costs about 45 a year and 450 over ten years at a constant amount, deducted daily and never visible on a statement: it shows up in the gap between the fund's return and its index's. At this level, neither low enough to be an argument nor high enough to be an obstacle, the decision rests elsewhere: on the index tracked, on the distribution policy, and on what your broker charges to buy.

Replication is physical: the fund actually holds the constituents of Foxberry Tematica Research Sustainable Future of Food, which makes its contents verifiable line by line in the issuer's report. Two points deserve attention. Securities lending first, practised by most physical funds to reduce costs: it earns a few hundredths of a point and creates an exposure to the borrower, covered by collateral, with the annual report stating the proportion lent. Rebalancing second: every change in the index's composition forces the fund to buy and sell, and those internal costs are not in the 0.45% headline. That is why two funds at the same price do not track their index with the same fidelity.

The domicile, Ireland, is not an administrative detail: it determines the withholding tax the fund suffers on the dividends it receives, and that loss appears in no fee table. On US equities, the Ireland-US treaty cuts withholding from thirty to fifteen per cent, which on a world index is mechanically worth several tenths of a point a year and explains Irish dominance of this segment. For the holder, the UCITS framework also brings the key information document in their own language, diversification rules, and separation of the fund's assets from the issuer's.

Income is accumulated: dividends from the holdings are reinvested inside the fund rather than paid out. In a taxable account that defers taxation to the moment of sale instead of triggering it annually, leaving the whole return at work, and that is the main advantage of this share class. Two qualifications go with it. A holder who needs income has to sell units to obtain it, which is one more decision to take and sometimes at a bad moment. And the deferral is not universal: some countries tax a notional annual return whatever the distribution policy, in which case the accumulating class changes nothing.

At 57 million in assets, this fund is small, and size is the main risk here, ahead of the index's volatility. A fund that stays below its issuer's viability threshold ends up merged or wound up, and both happen without your consent: liquidation forces a sale on a date you did not choose, hence a taxable gain at the wrong moment, and a merger moves you to an index that is not quite the one you picked. Assets falling year after year are the signal to watch, more than the absolute level. At this size the spread between buying and selling price is also wider, which costs on every order.

Foxberry Tematica Research Sustainable Future of Food applies a non-financial screen, and the first thing to establish is which one: a simple exclusion of a few activities leaves a portfolio very close to the starting index, while selecting the best-rated in each sector removes a large part of it. Both often carry the same kind of name. Two practical consequences: the deviation from the broad index becomes deliberate and can last for years, and the rating comes from a provider whose method changes, so the composition shifts without any public rule having moved. The exclusion list is in the prospectus, and that is the only document that binds.

Over one year the fund shows -0.7% against -8.9% annualised over five years: the recent year sits well above the long average. A gap in that direction mainly counsels care about the entry point, since what has risen sharply lately costs more today than a year ago, and the long average is the figure that best describes what to expect.

Contextual Analysis

Performance

Key Facts

Holdings

Risk

How to Buy This ETF

About this ETF

Similar ETFs