With thanks to Morton Gunsalu, Promotion Manager for the Malawi Investment Trade Centre, a meeting was arranged at short notice on Sunday 19th June 2022 at Malawi Sun Hotel, between several macadamia producers and Africa Global Trade Finance (AGTF), a London-based financing company. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce AGTF to the producer members and to outline the type of trade financing that they are able to offer or provide.
In a “nut-shell” AGTF provides bridging finance based on “warehouse receipts”, that is they are able to pre-fund an export or potential sale of macadamia nuts provided that the “sellable produce” is accounted for in a warehouse, and on the back of a confirmed sales agreement or contract. Essentially this could ease cashflow shortages that may be faced by macadamia exporters as they wait for customers to finalize payment.
The discussion did not entail specific details, however, indicative interest rates of between 1% and 1.5% per month were mentioned as a gauge, however this would depend on a case-by-case basis.
Their ideal financial package is within the scope of US$ 2 million, however, the minimum financing threshold is $1,000,0000.00, provided that this value is turned around within an acceptable time span.
It is important to note for all, that AGTF does not provide any form of input financing. However, they were willing to link MMA with other financing companies that have financial products that incorporate input financing. The MMA secretariat will follow up on this.
For more information, please contact the Administrator - [email protected]
