The Samoa Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc and FAO are partnering to address risk to agricultural lending.

Rural finance is an important element and catalyst to rural development. Yet the lack of capacity and structures to adequately deal with both the business and financial system risks has led to underwhelming results. Millions of dollars has been invested into rural finance, especially agricultural credit and yet rural communities have little to show for this investment.

Facilitating an increase in agriculture production and processing efficiencies to compete with, for example,  food imports requires an increased access to finance for Samoa’s commercial farmers and growers.

FAO and the Samoa Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc . offered a training workshop in September to raise awareness of risk to agricultural lending in Samoa,

Senior FAO Officer, Mr Frank Chopin in his opening remarks commented “this workshop brings together agribusinesses, financial institutions and policy-makers, to share the findings of extensive research at the global level on innovative financial services for agriculture. The cases presented are meant to facilitate an open discussion on how such innovations could be applied to Samoa. In this regard, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry plays a pivotal role in supporting the development of the agribusiness sector in the island, along with the government’s agenda”.

President of the Samoa Chamber of Commerce Tuala Pat Leota thanked the FAO for the opportunity to provide training and capacity building for members of the Private and Public Sector, and that these are important forums to address and discuss important issues such as access to finance for our agriculture farmers and all relevant stakeholders.

The purpose of the workshop was to build the capacity, create opportunities and improve access to finance in Samoa for Agribusiness operators.  The workshop explored possible instruments to address the low levels of access to finance in the agriculture sector.  It focused on alternatives to traditional collateral in agriculture and strategies to mitigate risk lending for agriculture loan guarantees.

In January 2015 FAO and the Samoa Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed a Letter of Agreement to undertake an ‘Investment into agriculture value chains’ project throughout 2015. In April, Samoa Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc and FAO hosted a workshop on contract farming and in August offered a workshop on fresh produce safety and quality.

← Back to Pacific News