The 76th Consultative Committee (CC76) of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) convened in Amsterdam from 7–10 July 2025, resulting in the recommendation of 11 impactful investment projects. These projects aim to promote inclusive development in commodity-dependent countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. Collectively, they are expected to benefit more than 11.1 million smallholder farmers and rural entrepreneurs while contributing to ten Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The investments—selected from a record 302 proposals under the 26th Call for Proposals—represent over USD 12.8 million in CFC funding and are projected to unlock a total project value exceeding USD 73.8 million.
The recommended projects target multiple countries including Uganda, Ghana, DR Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Nigeria, Mexico, Peru, and the Philippines. Emphasis was placed on initiatives demonstrating strong local ownership, environmental sustainability, gender inclusion, regenerative agriculture practices, and innovation across agricultural value chains. The projects cover areas such as smallholder coffee and cocoa cooperatives, sustainable spice and agroforestry expansion, cashew nut processing, and microfinance access.
Key focus areas include support for coffee and cocoa value chains, with initiatives backing cooperatives and processors in countries like Uganda, Mexico, and the Philippines. The projects also encompass financing for organic vanilla and diversified crop sourcing in Uganda, and trade finance for a cashew processor cooperative in Côte d’Ivoire. Other projects involve term loans to scale microfinance access across 17 member countries, working capital for vertically integrated agribusinesses in Nigeria, and pre-export financing to support cocoa sourcing in Ghana.
Additional investments target cooperative empowerment in DR Congo and Peru, cacao traceability and climate resilience in the Philippines, and increased inclusion of women in agriculture. Trade finance loans are also directed toward certified processors and cooperatives in Africa and Latin America to ensure timely crop procurement and local value addition.
Beyond these 11 projects, the Committee acknowledged a growing pipeline of 47 potential projects with over USD 64 million in investment prospects. The meeting highlighted the CFC’s strategic initiative “Humanizing Value Chains” (HVC), aimed at embedding fairness and transparency using technologies such as blockchain, traceability systems, and micro-repatriation models.
Other developments included progress on the Strategic Framework 2025–2035, shaped with input from countries like Colombia, Indonesia, Uganda, and the Philippines. It was also noted that in 2024, the Executive Board approved financing for 18 projects—the highest annual number in 11 years. Updates were shared on the ACT Fund, a new mechanism to attract private capital to high-impact agricultural ventures.
Finally, the CFC reaffirmed its commitment to improving its impact assessment methodology by reducing dependence on self-reported data and integrating publicly available, operational data. The Fund also continues to enhance its ESG safeguards to ensure credible, inclusive, and measurable development outcomes.
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