Smallholder coffee farmers in Latin America

Rabo Rural Fund in 2020: Focus on sustainable growth

Drought, heavy rainfall, plant diseases, volatile prices on the global market, and on top of all that: the coronavirus pandemic. Farmer’s organizations around the world faced some major challenges in 2020. Especially if they found themselves in the ‘missing middle’ – grown too large for support from Rabo Foundation, but still too small for standard bank loans. Rabo Rural Fund helps these organizations continue growing.

How Rabo Rural Fund works

We’re active in the most economically, socially and ecologically vulnerable countries in Africa, Asia, and South- and Central America. There, farmers' organizations produce grow crops such as spices, vegetables, nuts and quinoa. They are deeply rooted in their communities, and play a key role in creating jobs and generating incomes and food security. They also often have difficulty finding commercial investors. But where normal banks see only risks, the Rabo Rural Fund sees opportunities. Especially opportunities to make local food production sustainable, and to increase the income of smallholder farmers. We invest in the growth of agricultural enterprises in order to contribute to sustainable economic development.