Lecture Description
Amidst volatile prices and seasonal realities, cooperatives and washing stations need sufficient cash flow to make timely purchases from smallholder farmers. Whereas exporting organizations often lack crucial liquidity during the harvest, they also rarely have the required collateral to secure a working capital loan. To combat this, exporters, lenders, and buyers collaborate through tripartite agreements to meet exporters’ seasonal financing needs. This strategic coordination mitigates risks for lenders on unsecured loans, enables buyers to secure supply, and provides exporters with the necessary cash to make upfront, timely payments to farmers—providing stability to smallholder families in an environment of increasing instability and risk. In other words, it’s a win/win/win/win.
These agreements have proven to be an effective way to facilitate trade across the coffee value chain and mitigate risk. However, they do come with their own set of challenges.
This panel will discuss the pros and cons of collaborating through tripartite agreements and how coffee trade financing can be more effective through collaboration. The panel will demonstrate how exporters and buyers can leverage tripartite agreements (and why they should) to help producer organizations fulfill their financing needs.
Date: Saturday, April 13, 2024
Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm
Room Number: N426C
Instructor
Andrea Zinn (she/her)
Director, Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF)
Andrea Zinn is the Director of the Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF), the leading network of lending practitioners promoting an inclusive finance market for farmer cooperatives and agri-SMEs. CSAF members collectively disburse over $400M annually to coffee producer organizations and SMEs. Previous to CSAF, Andrea consulted on various global projects focused in coffee and agricultural finance, including initiatives funded by IFAD, USAID, GIZ, ITC, and the Inter-American Development Bank. Andrea previously specialized in SME financing and coffee price risk management through her work with Oikocredit and Vuna Origin Consulting. In addition to CSAF, Andrea leads Aceli Americas, an adaptation of Aceli Africa to mobilize financing to high-impact agri-SMEs in Latin America.
Delmy Regalado (she/her)
CEO, SAN MARCOS
Delmy Regalado is the CEO of Beneficio San Marcos, located in Sensenti, Ocotepeque, Honduras, She is well known for supporting producers and representatives of other organizations to market their coffees; emphasizing especially the work of women in the coffee industry. it also supports financial management, with training related to administration and finances.
coffee producer, and founder of an association of women producers of La Labor.
with more than 20 years of experience in the production and processing of specialty coffees.
Daniel Rivera
Felice Chay (she/her)
LatAm Origination Coordinator, Sucafina NA
Felice is the Latin American Origination Coordinator at Sucafina NA. She was first introduced to the coffee industry as an Economic Development Peace Corps Volunteer in Western Honduras in the early 2000s. After over a decade of non-profit/development work in both the US and Central America, she joined a green coffee trading company in 2012. She began working with Sucafina NA in 2016 and coordinates third-party sourcing from Central America and Peru for the global group.