ImpactAlpha, May 9 – Amsterdam-based Tradin Organic is an agribusiness that sources and distributes organic ingredients worldwide. U.K. agribusiness impact investor AgDevCo approved a $3 million revolving credit facility for Tradin’s Sierra Leone-based business, which focuses on organic cocoa farming.
Tradin Organic has been operating in Sierra Leone since 2015, when it launched a smallholder organic cocoa farming initiative to reinvigorate the sector after the Ebola crisis halted much of the region’s agricultural trading. By helping farmers establish organic farming practices, pass certification and by purchasing their cocoa beans, Tradin Sierra Leone helps farmers earn a premium in the otherwise opaque and low-wage cocoa market.
AgDevCo’s financing will allow Tradin Sierra Leone to pay premium prices for cocoa beans from 20,000 local farmers, for processing in Tradin’s facility in the Netherlands. It will also support Tradin’s recently-launched farmer training initiative. The investment is AgDevCo’s first in Sierra Leone.
Others companies, like Berkeley, Calif.-based social enterprise Uncommon Cacao, Canadian impact investor NatureBank Asset Management and U.S.-based Southern Harvest Partners are also tackling fair wages and supply chain transparency in the cocoa sector.
