Guest News
Farmers throughout the developing world face considerable challenges in accessing finance, and this can often influence their decision-making. For instance, even if they know they should not sell soon after harvest, when prices are typically low, they are often forced to sell because they need the cash to meet their family basic needs.
Source: IFAD
In late 2013, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) issued a tender for a study to review the scope for warehouse receipt finance in Africa and help formulate policies and strategies for its expansion. The Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM), funded by the European Commission, Italian Development Cooperation, IFAD and AFD, and hosted by IFAD, also contributed to finance this study.
For the occasion, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), in the first piloted joint UN/non-UN agency partnership organized an half day learning event and 3 volume book launch on appropriate warehousing and collateral management systems in nine (9) subject countries in SSA – Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal and Uganda.
Date: 26 October 2015
Time: 13:30 – 17:00 p.m.
Venue: IFAD Headquarters, Rome
Discussions focused on:
- Promoting warehouse receipts and collateral management systems: a case of he who pays the piper
- The legal framework for warehouse financing: looking at obstacles and solutions – with case studies drawn from subject countries.
DOWNLOAD FULL STUDY
Warehouse Receipt Study – Volume I. Key Findings
Warehouse Receipt Study – Volume II. Technical Country Reports
Warehouse Receipt Study – Volume III. Review of Applicable Laws
Learn More About the Authors
Jonathan Coulter
A 67-year old economist highly experienced in the policies and practicalities of agricultural commodity markets and post-harvest systems in “southern countries”. Notably, he is one of the leading experts in warehouse receipts systems and commodity-collateralised financing, a subject on which he has researched widely, implemented projects and/or advised in many countries, in Africa, the Americas and India. He has made his findings widely available through public presentations and publications, and contributed to various important policy and practitioner forums. Until 2009, he worked for the UK Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, and since then he has been consulting for the World Bank Group, UNCTAD, Agence Française de Développement and a range of other parties.
Geoffrey Wynne
Head of Sullivan & Worcester’s London office and also head of its Trade & Export Finance Group. He has extensive experience in banking and finance, specifically trade and structured trade and commodity finance. He also advises on corporate and international finance, asset and project finance, syndicated lending, equipment leasing and workouts and financing restructuring. Geoff is one of the leading trade finance lawyers and has advised extensively many of the major trade finance banks, multilateral financers and companies around the world on trade and commodity transactions in virtually every emerging market including CIS, Far East, India, Africa and Latin America. He has worked on many structured trade transactions covering such diverse commodities as oil, nickel, steel, tobacco, cocoa and coffee. He has worked on warehouse financings in many jurisdictions and advised on how to structure involving warehouse operators and collateral managers. He has also advised on ownership structures and repos for commodities and receivables financings.
