Latin American Agribusiness Development Corporation S.A. (LAAD)

Press release

July 17, 2020

FMO and FinDev Canada support the expansion of agricultural SMEs in Latin America with 72M investment in LAAD

Press Releases

Development finance institutions (DFIs) FMO and FinDev Canada today provided a syndicated loan facility of.......

Financial and non-financial services for agricultural SMEs: The transaction will support local market development by expanding financing for agribusinesses in the region. Alongside its financial services, LAAD also provides knowledge transfer to its clients, enabling them to optimize their use of agricultural inputs (land, water, seeds, etc.) to maximize outputs and, consequently, revenues.
Supporting decent employment in rural areas: The loan is expected to contribute to sustaining thousands of jobs in rural areas.
GDP contribution through economic value-added: The transaction will also contribute direct economic value addition to rural economies.

Over 30% of jobs that will be supported will be held by women.

Supporting women’s employment: Women are represented throughout LAAD’s operations as employees and managers. The Company has recently started to track gender-disaggregated data about the jobs supported by their SME clients, thus creating the potential for significant indirect job creation benefiting women. Over 30% of jobs that will be supported will be held by women.
Understanding gender dynamics in the agricultural sector: LAAD will improve its data collection to obtain gender disaggregated data, which will enable better understanding of gender dynamics and the identification of opportunities in the agricultural sector.

Scaling private-sector climate adaptation solutions: LAAD supports agribusinesses in adapting to climate change, leveraging its internal know-how and financing climate adaptation projects such as drip irrigation, drought resistant seeds and high-yield seeds.
Promoting sustainable agriculture practices: LAAD encourages sustainable agricultural operations and supports clients in obtaining standards or certification, such as the Rain Forest Alliance, Fair Trade, Organic and UTZ.
Land Conservation: LAAD has robust monitoring systems in place to track highconservation value areas (HCVAs) adjacent to their client’s agricultural land.