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A loan to support an African agricultural commodities trader

Project

Agriculture and agri-food
Signature date
Location
Multi-country Global, South Africa, Benin, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Financing tool
Loan
Financing amount (Euro)
37104128
Financing details
USD 41,289,473.68 USD loan
Customer
ETG
Type of customer
Company
Country of headquarters
Mauritius
Project number
PZZ1442
Environmental and social ranking
A
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This information is given at the time of signature, without prejudice to any developments in the operation/project.

ETG, an African trader, connects small local producers with international markets. It thereby contributes to increasing their incomes and developing processing activities in Africa, especially in fragile countries.

Client presentation

ETG was set up in Kenya in 1967. It has today become one of the largest agricultural companies in Africa and is the only African trader to rival international traders. Every year, ETG ships some 7 million tons of agricultural commodities (legumes, cereals, fertilizers) to over 40 countries, including 26 African countries, with a strong base in East and Southern Africa. The Group employs some 6,800 people and sources from hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers. The Group also develops products with higher added value, such as mass-market consumer goods, via its entity Vamara, and inputs for the African market, where agricultural yields are low. 

Project description

The project aims to finance and refinance ETG’s investment program for 2018-2020. It covers over 50 subprojects, ranging from processing plants to warehouses and including vehicles, with the aim of strengthening the Group’s integration. Over 80% target LDCs and crisis or post-crisis countries (Malawi, Côte d'Ivoire, Zambia, etc.). 

This financing improves access to long-term resources, which remains difficult. These resources also strengthen the stability of the Group’s balance sheet.

Project impact

The project has 2 main objectives:

  • Link up smallholders with the formal economy by offering them market opportunities. Indeed, one of the main barriers to the development of intra-African trade and incomes for smallholders in Sub-Saharan Africa is the difficulty for commercial buyers to reach them, due to the costs incurred by the lack of logistics. Thanks to its dense network of warehouses and its operation via depots, ETG allows farmers both to sell their goods near their land and purchase inputs. Furthermore, the advice given to smallholders by ETG’s agronomists, in the context of the business relationship, contributes to the dissemination of good practices on inputs in order to increase yields, which is a key issue for the development of African agriculture. 
  • Increase the added value produced in Africa by expanding the processing capacity. Vamara, a subsidiary of ETG, produces mass-market consumer goods that are accessible to the lower middle class, as well as goods for the World Food Programme (WFP).