GLOBAL food and agri-business Olam International and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Olam Treasury, have secured multi-tranche financing facilities totalling US$176 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The facilities, announced on April 29, consisted of a five-year term loan of US$120 million and a seven-year term loan of US$56 million.

Olam managing director and group CFO N Muthukumar says the facilities will provide support, stability and reliable market access to smallholder farmers, particularly in these challenging times. “The facilities also align with Olam’s core purpose of re-imagining global agriculture and food systems as well as IFC’s and JICA’s mandate of enabling inclusive economic growth with environmental stewardship and regional integration,” he adds.

Proceeds from the facilities will be used for the procurement of specific agri-commodities from smallholder farmers in Vietnam, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Uganda, as well as the expansion of Olam’s cocoa processing facility in Indonesia.

"This new investment in Olam will help smallholder farmers in developing countries reach global markets and boost their incomes," says IFC senior director for manufacturing, agribusiness and services Tomasz Telma. “We also anticipate that together with Olam and JICA, IFC will help promote greater inclusiveness through better use of digital technologies as well as capacity-building at farmer level.”

JICA senior vice-president Junichi Yamada notes that Olam has been actively working to build a global, sustainable agri-business, and considerable efforts have been made to tackle environmental and social issues in Indonesia. “We expect sustainable cacao business in Indonesia will be expanded through this loan facility, which we believe will provide stability to smallholder farmers,” he points out.

Yamada says this is JICA’s first co-finance project with IFC in the agri-sector and that JICA would like to cooperate with IFC to further expand agri-sector support.

Headquartered and listed in Singapore Exchange, Olam is a leading food and agri-business supplying food, ingredients, feed and fibre to 25,200 customers worldwide. Its value chain spans over 60 countries and includes farming, processing and distribution operations, as well as a sourcing network of an estimated five million farmers.