Agriculture and agro-industry

The development of resilient agricultural and agro-industrial sectors is essential for the construction of a sustainable future for developing countries and, more generally, for humanity.

Addressing this challenge requires huge investments to develop the entire value chain in the sector: from improving yields and collection operations on farms to the transportation of products and their distribution on local, regional or international markets, and including activities related to processing and storage (factories, warehouses, cold chains…), etc.

Proparco assists this development by supporting a wide range of private actors in the South: from local seed producers to regional agro-industries, and including financial institutions that finance the sector.

Its operations aim to promote more productive agricultural and agro-industrial models that are also more environmentally friendly and more energy-efficient, and create decent employment and wealth.

• Structuring sectors in order to facilitate the establishment of contracts between (small) producers and the agro-industry and secure their incomes, and the supply and marketing of products;

• Improving the productivity and profitability of farms in order to ensure they are sustainable and better meet both local and international demand;

• Developing processing activities in order to bring about the creation of local agro-industrial actors, increase the added value in producing countries, and contribute to reducing food imports;

• Creating and improving logistics infrastructure in order to facilitate the transportation of agricultural production to the consumer, limit post-harvest losses, and thereby reduce price volatility;

• Disseminating high environmental and social standards in order to preserve natural resources and create decent employment for rural populations;

• Diversifying the activity of agricultural producers (biofuel production, development of biomass cogeneration…) in order to reduce their vulnerability to market fluctuations and provide them with additional incomes;

• Providing access to financing for farmers and agro-industries via the allocation of dedicated credit lines to financial institutions working in the sector, including banks.