Calvert Impact backs Fairtrade Access Fund, extending partnership with Incofin into climate-resilient agri-food systems

Fairtrade Access Fund today announced a new debt financing agreement with Calvert Impact Capital, the subsidiary of longstanding US impact investor Calvert Impact, to support sustainable food systems in Latin America, Africa and Asia. “Fifteen years ago, fairness for farmers meant a fair price. Today it means helping them stay in the market as the rules change around them – on climate, on traceability, on deforestation,” said Luuk Zonneveld, Chair of the Fairtrade Access Fund (FAF). “We’re proud to have Calvert Impact as a partner in that work.”

This new financing agreement expands on Calvert Impact’s relationship with FAF’s advisor, Incofin Investment Management, that began in 2025 through the Global Gender-Smart Fund (GGSF). The financing will flow to agricultural cooperatives, producer organisations and small and medium enterprises across FAF’s value chains in Latin America, Africa and Asia. These are businesses that buy from smallholders, pay them fairly and on time, and help scale the sustainable practices farmers are already adopting – from agroforestry to more efficient water use.

FAF’s recent launch of its Payments for Ecosystem Services programme illustrates how financing smallholder value chains can also contribute to soil restoration, better water management and biodiversity preservation.

For Calvert Impact, the commitment marks a deepening of their work on climate-resilient agri-food systems and of its partnership with Incofin.

For FAF, it adds to a year of fundraising traction. The fund closed 2025 at USD 78 million in assets under management and is progressing toward its USD 100 million AUM fundraising target, building on a year in which it reached 545,850 smallholder farmers across 17 countries and saw sustainability premiums for farmers grow by 76%.