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Fairtrade Access Fund

Subsidy : April 2020

Fairtrade Access Fund is an open-ended debt fund with an existing technical assistance facility that has the objective to support FAF investees and potential investees in attaining their development potential by providing access to skills and technical assistance services (TA).

Amount

€ 350,000.00

Type of investment

Subsidy

Development impacts

  • Local economic growth
  • Private sector consolidation/innovation
  • Financial inclusion
  • Fight against climate change

Beneficiary locations

Africa: Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
Latin America and Caribbean: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru

Investment field

Investment Companies & Funds

Activity

KK.64.300 SME Fund

Organisation

Fairtrade Access Fund

Domicile

Belgium

More investments in

Fairtrade Access Fund

  • Equity € 3,000,000.00 (2019)

The Fairtrade Access Fund (FAF) is a regulated evergreen fund founded in 2012 and operates in Latin America and Africa, offering lending products for cooperatives, processors and agricultural exporters who work primarily with smallholder farms and have a strong commitment to sustainable development. The fund currently supports around 250,000 sustainable and Fairtrade certified farmers.

The FAF Technical Assistance Facility focuses on five main areas of intervention:

  1. To improve the productivity and/or quality of smallholder farmers’ crops by providing them with better access to services and critical, actionable information that will enhance yields, reduce or prevent the impact of diseases, and improve quality, thereby enabling them to meet international market requirements and/or have better access to markets;
  2. To improve the capacity of smallholder farmers to comply with fair trade and sustainable certification processes and to maintain their certifications, thereby facilitating their access to fair trade and sustainable markets, as these markets offer organized value chains, where commodity pricing reflects the added value of the fair and sustainable practices employed;
  3. To build the capacity of FAF investees and potential investees, particularly Producer Organizations (POs), to manage their business effectively and efficiently by improving management, governance and planning capabilities, thereby allowing them to provide better services to smallholder farmers and to increase their outreach;
  4. To strengthen the operational and social performance management of FAF investees and potential investees by implementing poverty assessment tools, farmer socio-demographic baselines and profiling activities;
  5. To contribute to a fair agricultural sector through knowledge sharing by developing and elaborating case studies, thematic researches, learning events.

Development impacts

  • Local economic growth
  • Private sector consolidation/innovation
  • Financial inclusion
  • Fight against climate change

Made possible through this investment

Thanks to the direct funding from BIO, the following second-line investments have been made possible.

Agribusiness

Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Chile

Debt fund investees

MFI

Kenya, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Peru

Debt fund investee

View more of our investments in this region

Vital Finance

Financial Institutions

Vital Finance

 3,000,000.00

  Benin

  13/01/2026

  Debt

Banco Azul de El Salvador

Financial Institutions

Banco Azul de El Salvador

28,279.00

  El Salvador

  01/12/2025

  Subsidy

Biophyto

Enterprises

Biophyto

 2,750,000.00

  Benin

  01/12/2025

  Debt

Banco Azul de El Salvador

Financial Institutions

Banco Azul de El Salvador

12,543.00

  El Salvador

  01/12/2025

  Subsidy

African Rivers Fund IV

Investment Companies & Funds

African Rivers Fund IV

350,000.00

  Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Zambia

  27/11/2025

  Subsidy

AfricInvest SME Fund

AfricInvest SME Fund

 385,000.00

  Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria

  04/11/2025

  Subsidy

ACEP Burkina Faso

Financial Institutions

ACEP Burkina Faso

 4,000,000.00

  Burkina Faso

  01/11/2025

  Debt

Glacier Products Ltd

Enterprises

Glacier Products Ltd

 8,000,000.00

  Kenya

  01/11/2025

  Debt

Optima Servicios Financieros S.A. de C.V.

Financial Institutions

Optima Servicios Financieros S.A. de C.V.

 4,927.00

  El Salvador

  28/10/2025

  Subsidy