Note: This year’s Global Landscapes Forum will pioneer an innovative format for launching concrete investment opportunities at a high level: the dragons’ den.
We bring together leading thinkers from finance, the corporate sector and landscape research. Here, organizations behind the launch will have the opportunity to pitch their investment opportunity to the experts and receive immediate feedback. After the pitches, organizers behind the launched initiatives will break out into separate rooms, where they can meet with interested investors and potential partners for focused discussions around the specific investment opportunity.
The cocoa supply chain is fraught with multiple economic, social, and environmental challenges—creating a potentially critical situation for the sector.
NatureBank Asset Management is actively leveraging our experience by directing investment capital into developing vertically-integrated and sustainably-managed high-quality cocoa production. Both fine and flavor cocoa are in high demand by chocolate manufacturers internationally, and priced at the premium end of the market. Sustainable cocoa production involves a comprehensive approach to addressing each of the core challenges faced by traditional cocoa farming.
NatureBank only deploys capital and resources where sustainability requirements can be met or exceeded. In doing so, we deliver high-quality cocoa with attractive yields, while enhancing the economic, social, and environmental conditions in the project areas.
Investors who work with NatureBank are partnering with a team of cocoa, agro-forestry, community development, and investment experts with proven experience working in Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia. It is planned to develop and manage a portfolio of agro-forestry projects worth $100 million, using the NatureBank team as a capable and experienced partner.
The planned outgrower concept lets smallholder farmers participate in the project’s commercial opportunites by buying inputs and using the project developer’s distribution channels, leading to an estimated 20% increase in revenue.
Capacity building for smallholder farmers is also a vital part of the project’s design.The local population will be given access to opportunities and training—including farming techniques, sustainable agriculture and financial planning.
Background reading:
- Sustainable cocoa in the Dominican Republic (White paper; 2016)
