The Rabobank Rural Fund (RRF), which supports the growth of sustainable and ethical companies, intends to increase its investment portfolio in aquaculture and fisheries, senior investment manager Ellen Bogers told Undercurrent News.
Until 2014, the fund concentrated mainly on backing enterprises which alleviate poverty and benefit small farmers, in sectors such as coffee and cocoa.
But the plan now is to further up the amount of work it does in seafood, with aquaculture a particular focus, she said.
Rabobank Indonesia’s Richard Barus, from the Food & Agri Research team, presented on behalf of RRF at the Aquaculture Innovation Challenge event in December, held in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
Organized by Netherlands-based sustainability group the Seafood Trade Intelligence Portal, as well as Fresh Studio and Solidaridad, the event is intended as an annual event to spur developments in the sector.
Aquaculture and fisheries in Southeast Asia and Latin America, for example, are often located in areas where access to funding is difficult, and where there is great poverty, said Bogers.
RRF strictly limits itself to backing ventures which will benefit communities economically, as well as being sustainable operations.
Bogers herself is in the process of relocating her focus to Central America and Colombia, where her priority will be to widen the fund’s portfolio in general, but with more of a focus on aquaculture and fisheries with shrimp one obvious area for promise she said.
Currently RRF has only backed a few seafood activities, including BlueYou Trading, which promotes farmed black tiger shrimp in Vietnam, as well as line-caught tuna in the Maldives.
In previous sectors, RRF would largely work with companies which were certified sustainable, or were aiming to be in the near future. Moving into seafood, it plans to work more with enterprises which are certified, in fishery improvement projects, or ones receiving technological aid and backing from established companies.
I’m looking for projects where the social impact improving the life of the small scale fishermen, is evident, said Bogers.
Even when we don’t finance small scale fishermen directly, but via the more mature co-ops or SMEs [small or medium enterprises], the fishermen are the end target group.
The co-ops or SMEs I’m looking for should be exporting certified or sustainable seafood, including aquaculture goods, sourced from small aquaculture farmers and fishermen.
The Rural Fund also works closely with the Rabobank Foundation, the bank’s social fund for cooperatives around the world.
The Foundation tends to invest between $50,000 and $500,000 in grassroots projects often cooperatives — while RRF takes on the slightly more developed investments, usually with small and medium sized-enterprises. RRF tends to invest between $300,000 and $2 million, said Bogers.
Alongside short-term trade finance the usual term is between three and 12 months the Fund also provides finance for mid-term investments, and makes guarantees available, intended to help a project partner to build up a track record with commercial banks.