The role of Blended finance in the food transition – what’s next?

The week before last, Rabobank Managing Board member Berry Marttin participated in an inspiring and interactive session about blended finance at the COP27 in Egypt. The session, which took place November 9th at the Food Systems Pavilion, was kicked off with an introduction of the blended finance concept and two successful Agri3 deals.

The theme of the day was “INCREASE sustainable investment and financing to build food systems”. Fitting, considering that blended finance has the potential to solve many financing issues and enable the transition towards more climate smart, resilient and sustainable food systems. The session featured an interactive conversation between panellists Berry Marttin and Daan Wensing, CEO of IDH, who were happy to share their insights and participate in an active discussion with the audience.

“I have this dream that the agricultural sector will be Net Positive. And to [achieve] that, we need to finance the [food] transition”, Marttin said, before touching on the difficulties that farmers face when transitioning to a new agricultural system; the initial loss of cashflow. “We can’t expect commercial banks to finance that valley. We need blended finance to go through that”, he added.

When it comes to the way forward successfully, Berry Marttin mentioned two goals to work towards. Blended finance transactions need to be simplified, so that the requirements don’t pose an impossible hurdle for farmers to overcome and deals can come together faster. Apart from this, smaller deals will make blended finance more interesting for farmers of all sizes, not just large agricultural players. To make this possible, collaboration is necessary along the value chain, all the way to the last mile.

The video below features some highlights of the session. For the full recording, please click on the link: https://youtu.be/5Nd7gZ0bNXQ?t=7458.