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The boom in commodities will last another four or five years as supplies remain short due to underinvestment in mines and demand from emerging economies keeps rising, a senior fund manager in South Korea said on Thursday.

Inflation worries around the global economy will also cause commodity investments to shine among the dull returns from stocks and bonds, Kang Chungmo, senior manager at Woori Credit Suisse Asset Management, said. “The commodities game will be much better than stocks and bonds for about four to five years,” Kang said in an interview.

He manages an 80 billion won ($83.82 million) commodity fund, the largest one in Asia. “The valuation for commodities, unlike stocks and bonds, is very difficult to do, so prices are completely decided by supply and demand. I believe there is a five-six year gap before commodity supply and demand will match.”

Backed by the recent bullishness in commodities, Woori in March started sales of a fund that invests solely in commodities, the first of its kind in the country. The fund uses a basket of 19 commodities, tracking the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index, which comprises futures from corn, gold, copper and crude oil.

“We are basically following the weighting of the CRB, but personally I think gold and crude oil are the most favourable commodities, while copper only has 10-15% further to rise,” Kang said. CRB index now weights 23% in crude oil and 6% each in gold, copper and corn.

Global prices of gold should hit $1,000 an ounce in three years, from $620 at present, Kang added. The Woori fund is up about 6.7% so far, after rising 12% in early May, and Kang is aiming for 10-12% in annual returns. In contrast, South Korea’s KOSPI index has fallen 7% this year, after a 54% rise last year.

Woori is considering offering more commodity funds to attract a broader range of investors to the market. But investors are limited to individuals because regulations forbid big pension funds in South Korea from putting their money into commodities.

The health and welfare ministry, which regulates the pension funds, is considering allowing the funds to invest outside of stocks and bonds.

“Commodity funds are drawing more attention, but it will take two years until big institutional investors are cashing in on the hot commodity market. Then the demand for commodity funds.