The African Development Bank (AfDB) is granting $20 million soft commodity finance facility for the development of Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Specifically, the facility will be used to provide funding to purchase farm inputs.
Mainly fertilizer to be supplied to farmers so as to ensure consistency and quality of the commodities being supplied to Meridian; purchase of soft commodities from over 10,000 farmers in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique; And, upon purchase of the soft commodities, provide working capital to Meridian to enable the company engage in basic processing of the soft commodities prior to export.
It will enable the bank to reach small-scale farmers indirectly through a regional aggregator (Meridian) that understands the market in which it has accumulated a 40-year track record; understands the operational risks and is able to mitigate and manage them.