AgriFI 2025 Annual Report
Investing Closer to the Farmer
AgriFI invests along the agricultural value chain, especially in the riskier segments closest to the farmer, to support food security and keep more value in African and partner-country economies. The 2025 report highlights how this approach works in practice, particularly in fragile and frontier contexts.
This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of EDFI MC and do not reflect the views of the European Union.
2025 At-a-Glance
74.8%
2025 Investments in Fragile States1
€60.8mPortfolio Size
Committed with 26 investments in 22 companies
€120mMandate Size
Assets Under Management
3.4X
Leverage Factor
¹ Based on the number of AgriFI investments signed in 2025 with counterparties located in countries considered in a state of “high or extreme” fragility as per OECD 2025 “States of Fragility 2025 Report”.
Foreword
“2025 was a demanding but constructive year for AgriFI. Commitments increased by 15.4% compared to 2024, bringing the portfolio to €60.8 million across 26 investments. This growth reflects a balanced mix of new transactions and follow-on investments, confirming our continued support to clients as they expand their outreach to smallholder farmers in challenging markets.
During the year, we achieved several important milestones:
- AgriFI ACP Regional Window closed its first investment in the Pacific region, extending our geographic footprint.
- Our Technical Assistance offering became fully operational, with the first projects launched to help our investees diversifying income streams, strengthening governance and operational capacity.
- We structured two Sustainability-Linked Loans, with VisionFund Tanzania and Kaebauk Investimentu no Finansas in Timor-Leste, linking pricing to the achievement of agreed impact targets.
At the same time, external pressures, volatile supply chain costs, worsening food security indicators in Africa, and projected reductions in ODA, forced us to prioritise opportunities even more rigorously. In response, we focused our efforts on transactions with strong potential for value retention and mobilisation, such as investments in agribusinesses and financial intermediaries in Zambia and Malawi that can attract additional co-investors, while anchoring more processing and services in partner countries.
On this basis, we enter 2026 with cautious optimism. The environment remains uncertain, but our experience confirms that AgriFI’s approach, consisting in working closer to the farmer in fragile and frontier markets, with patient capital and targeted Technical Assistance, is both relevant and replicable. This report presents the results of 2025 and, more importantly, the direction we intend to pursue in the years ahead.”
Rodrigo Madrazo García de Lomana
CEO, EDFI Management Company
AgriFI is funded by the EU and managed by EDFI Management Company. The initiative prioritizes investments that focus on smallholder inclusiveness, support increased yields, help raise farmer incomes, promote high environmental and social standards, and strengthen sustainable supply chains.
AgriFI contributes to Global Gateway, the EU’s investment strategy for partner countries, which aims to mobilise €300 billion in investments between 2021 and 2027 with a mix of grants, concessional loans and guarantees to de-risk private sector investments.
Global Gateway is the European strategy to boost smart, clean and secure connections in digital, energy and transport sectors, and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world.
Global Gateway is fully aligned with the UN’s Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the Paris Agreement.
Global Gateway aims to mobilise up to €300 billion in investments.
Through a ‘Team Europe approach’, Global Gateway will bring together the EU, its Member States and their financial and development institutions to mobilise the private sector to leverage investments for a transformational impact.
Seeds & Inputs – Laying the Foundation
Smallholder farmers face a persistent productivity trap. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, smallholder farmers produce over 80% of the world’s food, yet lack consistent access to improved seeds, appropriate fertilizers and agronomic. In Southern Africa, where climate variability is increasing, farmers often remain locked into low-value, climate-vulnerable commodity crops. Without access to quality inputs and extension support, yields stagnate and incomes remain subsistence-level.
Good Nature Agro
Good Nature Agro operates at this foundational stage, providing a fully integrated support system for smallholders growing high-value legumes, beans, cowpeas, soybeans, groundnuts, in Zambia. Their model combines:
- Climate-smart seed varieties tailored to Southern African conditions, with drought resilient and early maturity.
- Input finance linked to offtake, removing the collateral barriers that exclude smallholders from traditional banking.
- Extension services providing direct training in agronomic practices, soil health and climate-smart techniques.
- Access to market through GNA’s commitment to purchase at pre-agreed prices, eliminating market risk for farmers.
- Local processing at a factory in Chipata, Zambia, which cleans and packages legumes for domestic and export markets.
In 2025, AgriFI committed a $2m follow-on investment, hence supporting Good Nature Agro with Working Capital.
By upgrading farmers’ productivity and moving them toward higher-value, non-commodity crops, Good Nature Agro shifts the income distribution of the value chain. Participating farmers see income gains. The local processing capacity keeps more of the final product’s margin in Southern Africa, creates rural employment, and builds the foundation for further value-chain development, such as branded or certified products for premium markets.
Access to Finance – Enabling Investment Near the Farm
Access to patient capital is often the binding constraint to unlock smallholder transformation at scale. Traditional bank loans require collateral, land titles, equipment, that smallholders often lack. Informal lending comes at inflated rates, trapping households in debt cycles.
In post-conflict contexts like Timor-Leste, the problem is compounded by weak financial infrastructure and limited trust in formal institutions. In such a context, many investors therefore have limited appetite for junior transactions such as the USD 2m subordinated debt issued by AgriFI.
KIF and VisionFund
AgriFI supports two microfinance institutions working at this critical “last-mile” segment:
KIF (Timor-Leste)
KIF (Kaebauk Investimentu No Finansas) has been operating in Timor-Leste since 2001, evolving from an NGO to a licensed public microfinance company with a 67% market share in microloans.
KIF now serves over 18,000 clients, most of them women, across 21 branches in 13 districts. AgriFI’s 2025 investment of $2million supports expansion of the agri portfolio, particularly in crop-based lending where repayment is aligned to harvest cycles. The transaction also de-risks a series of investors due to its subordinated nature.
VisionFund Tanzania
VisionFund Tanzania is the fourth-largest microfinance institution in the country, serving over 80,000 clients, 60% rural and 63% women. VisionFund tailors loan products to smallholder cashflows, particularly for horticulture, which offers year-round income potential.
AgriFI’s 2025 investment of €2 million in local currency supports VisionFund’s continued expansion of its agricultural portfolio.
By enabling rural households, especially women, to access appropriately structured credit, KIF and VisionFund allow families to invest in productive assets (seeds, tools, livestock) and move away from subsistence.
Income stays in rural communities, spending on local goods and services stimulates demand, and women’s control over household resources improves. These impacts are measurable and documented in both institutions’ impact reports.
Aggregation & Logistics – Bridging Farm to Market
Even when farmers are productive, systemic losses occur between harvest and buyer. Post-harvest losses in northern Ghana can reach 20–30% due to inadequate storage, slow transportation and spoilage. Fragmented supply chains mean farmers sell to local traders who capture most of the margin, buyers have no direct visibility into quality or supply reliability.
Complete Farmer
Complete Farmer operates an end-to-end digital agricultural marketplace with a particular focus on aggregation and logistics. Their core model includes:
- Fulfilment centres positioned close to farming communities, including in northern Ghana (Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Northeast, Savannah regions), serving as hubs for input distribution, crop collection, quality grading and logistics.
- Agent network of trained purchase and extension agents who provide six-module training covering agronomic practices, quality standards and digital record-keeping.
- Digital platform that connects farmers to global and domestic buyers, reducing intermediation and providing farmers with market information and pricing.
- Input supply through the CF system, enabling farmers to access quality seeds and fertilizers at competitive rates.
AgriFI’s €2.2 million ($2.5 million) commitment in the construction of fulfilment centres in key locations of targeting 25,000 smallholder farmers, with plans to reach +60,000 farmers by the end of our investment in a conservative scenario.
By investing in aggregation and logistics infrastructure close to farmers, Complete Farmer addresses structural post-harvest losses and enables direct farmer-buyer relationships. More of the export margin stays in Ghana through higher farmer prices, reduced losses, local employment in centre operations and logistics, and data infrastructure that helps farmers meet international standards.
Export & Diversification – Linking to Hard Currency and Economic Resilience
Many African countries remain dependent on a small number of agricultural exports (coffee, cocoa, cashews), which exposes rural economies to price volatility and limits livelihood diversification. Commercial banks often avoid agricultural lending, particularly for smaller processors and exporters, creating a “missing middle” where businesses are too large for microfinance but too risky for traditional banking.
NBS Bank, Malawi
NBS Bank is a fully licensed commercial bank listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange, with 26 branches and over 2,100 agents across the country. NBS aims to become Malawi’s premier lender to the food and agriculture sector, a strategic shift that requires capital, risk-management tools and expertise. AgriFI’s total commitment of $5 million (provided through the ACP Regional Window) supports NBS in:
- Extending long-term credit to actors in selected value chains, including smallholder farmer organizations and processors.
- Targeting strong transformers and exporters in high-potential sectors such as tea and macadamia.
- Providing USD-denominated facilities to exporting companies, mitigating foreign exchange risk by aligning revenues and repayments in the same currency.
- Developing digital banking products tailored to farmers and agri-based enterprises, improving access to financial services and reducing information asymmetries.
The NBS investment is a follow-on commitment, deepening AgriFI’s partnership with the bank as it implements its agricultural strategy.
By enabling a major domestic commercial bank to develop agricultural expertise and financing capacity, AgriFI supports systemic change in Malawi’s financial sector. The bank can then channel capital through the value chain, from smallholder suppliers to mid-scale processors to exporters, creating a continuous flow of finance. This supports economic diversification beyond tobacco, keeps processing and value-adding activities within the country, and demonstrates to other banks that agribusiness is a viable lending segment.
The Four Stages: A Coherent Vision
The five 2025 investments sit on a continuum from primary agriculture to export markets:
- Good Nature Agro transforms productivity and input access at the farm level.
- KIF and VisionFund enable farmers to finance their own investments and operate sustainably.
- Complete Farmer builds aggregation and logistics infrastructure that reduces loss and connects farmers to buyers.
- NBS Bank provides finance to local processing and much needed USD resources to exporters.
Together, they illustrate a thesis central to AgriFI’s approach: value chains transform closest to where value is created, near the farmer, with appropriate finance, and in the local infrastructure that keeps margins in-country. This alignment with the EU Global Gateway’s agenda for sustainable value chains, green transitions and local value retention reflects a deliberate strategy to support food systems transformation in partner economies.
2025 Dealbook – High-Impact Commitments
2025 in numbers: €8.5m in 5 deals.
With 74.8% of volume in fragile countries Timor Leste, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia.
Complete Farmer
Ghana
$2.5 million
(€2.14 million)
To support Complete Farmer in the construction of fulfilment centres in key areas of operation, serving as aggregation, processing and service hubs.
Senior Loan
Good Nature Agro
Zambia
$2 million
(€1.71 million)
To increase GNA access to unsecured Working Capital, hence building liquidity buffers necessary for growth.
Senior Loan
NBS Bank
Malawi
$1 million
(€0.93 million)
To support NBS in developing its food & agri strategy by extending long-term credit to clients in selected value chains, including smallholder farmer organizations.
Senior Loan
KIF
Timor-Leste
$2 million
(€1.73 million)
Keep expanding their portfolio with an increased share of agriculture exposure.
Subordinated Debt
VisionFund
Tanzania
€2 million
To support VisionFund Tanzania in growing its agriculture portfolio and provide access to finance for smallholder farmers in the horticulture and other agricultural subsectors.
Senior Debt
Follow-On Investments as Trust Capital
Follow-on investments in Good Nature Agro and NBS Bank represent trust capital. They show that early, higher risk commitments in near farmer value chains have matured into opportunities that justify further support.
For Good Nature Agro, renewed investment comes after the company has demonstrated that its climate smart seed and extension model can scale, improve farmer incomes, and attract new co-investors. A follow-on here validates the business model and confirms that AgriFI’s initial, risk tolerant capital helped move the company from “promising” to “proven” in the eyes of the market.
For NBS Bank, the additional commitment deepens a strategic shift within a mainstream commercial bank toward agriculture and value chain finance. Extending the partnership signals that NBS is successfully building internal capacity, developing viable agri products, and reaching real clients in the sector. It also shows other banks that agribusiness can be a manageable part of a universal banking strategy.
“FMO has chaired the AgriFI IC since the launch of the Global facility back in 2017. With an emphasis on fragile markets, AgriFI has turned to be a relevant blending tool in helping us to build future pipeline, as part of our Market Creation strategy”
Coen van Genderen,
Manager Agribusiness Africa at FMO
AgriFI facilities are implemented by EDFI Management Company on behalf of FMO.
Nearly half of AgriFI’s €60.8 million portfolio is deployed through direct investments (45.7%), reflecting a strong focus on backing agribusinesses on the ground, while the remainder is channelled via funds (24.2%), MFIs (19.2%) and banks (10.9%), that know their markets well and can efficiently reach smaller or rural clients.
AgriFI’s €60.8 million portfolio is predominantly deployed as senior debt (67.2%), complemented by junior debt (18.5%) and equity (14.4%), reflecting a clear focus on debt instruments while still using subordinated debt and equity.
AgriFI’s €60.8 million portfolio is concentrated in Africa, with direct investments in sub-Saharan Africa representing roughly two-thirds of the portfolio (about 67%), followed by global mandates (21.4%), and Asia (11.8%).
Overall Portfolio – The Power of fragility
AgriFI’s share of investments in fragile and frontier markets is deliberate. These countries are highly exposed to climate and food price shocks, yet they receive limited risk tolerant capital for agriculture. Focusing near the farmer in these contexts, on seeds, smallholder finance, aggregation and local processing, directly supports food security, local incomes and resilience where they are most at risk.
If more mandates applied similar principles, near farmer investment, integrated TA, and a willingness to work in fragile contexts, the cumulative impact could be substantial, even if each facility remains relatively modest in size. We do not claim AgriFI alone can transform food systems; instead, the portfolio offers concrete evidence that our blending approach supports derisking and therefore can attract follow-on capital. Wider replication of this approach would mean more capital and know how flowing to the very markets where food security and resilience gains matter most.
“Once a deal is signed, our work starts. As portfolio team, we stay close to our investees – checking in regularly, following their progress and challenges, and making sure we understand how realities on the ground are evolving. This ongoing dialogue keeps us connected to our partners, helps us react early when risks emerge, and ensures that our support continues to be relevant and useful throughout the life of each investment.”
William Barrault
Portfolio manager
Technical Assistance – Beyond Capital
Technical Assistance (TA) is a core part of AgriFI’s model because investing close to the farmer, especially in fragile and frontier markets, requires more than capital. AgriFI’s TA facility is designed to “stand next to our investees as they grow,” bringing in targeted expertise to strengthen governance, operations and impact so that businesses can sustain growth and unlock more funding over time. TA is therefore not an addon; it is a risk management and value creation tool, particularly important for upstream, higher risk segments of the value chain.
A clear example in 2025 is Complete Farmer. With support from AgriFI’s TA facility, delivered by COLEAD, Complete Farmer is strengthening its out-grower network and the services provided to smallholders. The TA package focuses on improving farmer training, enhancing agronomic and business advisory support, and upgrading management processes within the out-grower scheme. This combination of tailored training and organisational support is designed to help more farmers meet quality standards, reduce post-harvest losses and benefit from the new fulfilment centres financed by AgriFI’s investment.
Number of smallholder farmers reached by AgriFI portfolio companies
1,925,000
Supported the production of
2,365,000
tons of food per year
Facilitated the cultivation of
2,072,000
ha of land per year
Methodology: The Realised Impact tracks the annual progress of these impact indicators and is based on an annual monitoring, which occurs in January 2026 for data from the previous twelve months. It includes exited investments when applicable. These results are non-attributed.
As of end 2025, companies in AgriFI’s portfolio support around 9,400 jobs in full-time equivalent. Almost 40% of these jobs are held by women. Since AgriFi invested in these companies, 3,200 jobs have been created.
In line with EDFI Resolution on Advancing Gender Smart Investing, since 2020 EDFI MC adopted the 2X Challenge framework as part of the wider commitment to pursue gender equality and women’s economic empowerment as essential drivers of impact.
This commitment is translated into an integration of Gender Lens Investing in AgriFI’s investment cycle. Each transaction is screened and monitored against the 2x Criteria. As of end 2025, 70% of AgriFI’s active investees were 2x Aligned. Gender representation is particularly prominent in Financial Intermediaries’ portfolio, and in Leadership (senior management and board) and Employment positions.
Why Gender Matters in Agricultural Finance
Gender is a critical dimension of AgriFI’s impact. Women are central to agrifood systems yet remain systematically underserved by finance. According to FAO, women make up nearly half of the agricultural labour force in low and middle income countries but face persistent gaps in access to land, credit and productive resources. At the same time, evidence from venture and SME finance shows that women-led businesses often receive a fraction of total funding despite delivering competitive or superior returns, underlining a structural investment gap rather than a performance gap.
For AgriFI, applying a gender smart lens is a way to reach underserved clients, strengthen household resilience and unlock underutilised entrepreneurial capacity in agriculture.
Gender-Smart Finance in Practice
KIF Timor Leste operates in a post-conflict, low-income country where rural women have very limited access to formal finance. Around 52% of KIF customers are women. Its cash flow-based lending model enables women farmers and microentrepreneurs to access credit without traditional collateral, supporting investments in smallholder agriculture and rural businesses while building financial autonomy.
VisionFund Tanzania works in a different context but with a similar focus on low-income women in rural areas. Approximately 60% of VisionFund’s clients live in rural areas and 63% are women; most use loans to finance agriculture and small businesses.
Across both institutions, AgriFI’s capital reinforces business models that intentionally reach women as primary clients and that adapt product design, loan size, tenure, repayment schedules, to their realities in agriculture and rural enterprise.
“Our investment officers spend a lot of time on the ground in sub-Saharan Africa, visiting our investees, walking their fields and listening carefully to their ambitions. Those conversations – about managing risk, creating jobs and serving smallholder farmers – are where our mandate becomes tangible. Navigating these realities on the ground and translating them into sound investment decisions is not always straightforward, but seeing what our partners achieve in difficult environments is truly inspiring.”
Lionel Dieu
AgriFI Fund Manager
Leverage
AgriFI’s impact is not only measured by the capital it deploys directly, but also by how much additional finance it helps to unlock for smallholder farmers and agribusinesses. This mobilisation effect is captured by the facility’s leverage factor.
A leverage factor of 3.4 means that for every euro AgriFI commits, an additional 2.4 euros are mobilised from other financiers. This goes to the heart of AgriFI’s role as a catalyst: with comparatively limited own resources, the facility unlocks significantly larger volumes of capital for agriculture in difficult markets. In a context of constrained ODA, this mobilisation effect is a critical part of AgriFI’s value added, stretching EU funds while bringing in complementary risk-taking capacity and expertise from DFIs and private investors.
For a mandate like AgriFI’s, which aims to accelerate access to finance for smallholders and agribusinesses, the leverage factor is a key indicator of impact. It shows that taking early, higher risk positions in near farmer, value-chain oriented projects help make these opportunities visible and acceptable to other financiers. When co-investors join or return for follow-on rounds, it signals that models serving smallholders in fragile and frontier markets can be bankable, provided they are supported with the right blend of concessional capital and Technical Assistance. Over time, this demonstration effect can influence how partner banks, funds and DFIs allocate their own balance sheets to agriculture, well beyond the direct size of AgriFI’s portfolio.
Future Outlook
AgriFI’s outlook can be expressed in three points:
1. Focus on fragile and frontier markets
AgriFI will continue to prioritise under invested fragile and frontier countries and investments close to the farm gate, seeds and inputs, smallholder finance, aggregation and local processing, because this is where finance is most scarce and where improvements have the strongest effect on food security and resilience.
2. Alignment with EU Global Gateway
AgriFI will further position itself as a practical implementation tool for the EU’s Global Gateway agenda by focusing on:
- Green transition: climate‑smart, nature‑positive agriculture, deforestation – free products, and resilient value chains.
- Digital value chains: data and platforms that improve traceability, logistics and market access.
- Strategic corridors: storage, processing and logistics near key trade routes so more value is captured in partner countries.
3. Value retention and crowding in investors
With ODA under pressure, AgriFI will sharpen its role as a catalyst. Future transactions will be structured to retain more value locally (through processing and services in partner countries), to demonstrate bankability in fragile agricultural markets, and to attract follow-on and co-investment from DFIs, impact funds and commercial investors. The goal is not to scale for its own sake, but a clear demonstration of models that others can adopt and expand.
