It was a successful first half of the year for the Technical Assistance Facility of the Fairtrade Access Fund (FAF TAF), managed by Incofin Investment Management (Incofin IM). On June 27th, the FAF TAF Committee, represented by Fairtrade International and Incofin IM on behalf of the FAF Fund and its donors – KfW and FMO – approved four new projects:
- COMSA, Honduras: support in organic fertilizer production to increase the cooperative’s financial sustainability, minimize the negative environmental impacts of coffee production and encourage farm diversification
- FECCEG, Guatemala: strengthening profitability of key business lines (incl. organic honey and sugar cane), developing a strategy to provide fair and responsible financing to members
- Prosperidad de Chirinos, Peru: improving capacities in soil/crop rehabilitation and quality control (in support to the FAF long-term investment to finance the construction of solar dryers on members’ farms)
- Ten Senses, Kenya: introducing software and mobile application to improve farmer productivity and support the profitability of Ten Senses’ cashew business.
This adds to the thematic and geographical variety of the TAF, which is now active in 10 countries. Since the beginning of 2018, the TAF has grown with 6 new projects and disbursed a record of USD 176.000 for the benefit of 10 FAF investees, reaching out to over 34.000 smallholder farmers. The TAF successfully finalized a project with COSURCA (Colombia) to help coffee farmers whose livelihoods are under threat from climate change to begin producing organic cacao in order to diversify their income sources. Through this project, 108 family farms have been diversified and 54,000 organic cacao tress planted. This is a great example of how the TAF is advancing the mission of the Fund through the provision of tailored capacity building support to its investees aimed at creating a fair, sustainable and inclusive agricultural sector, where the smallholders can maximize their potential to live a better and happier life.
