FinExCoop Georgia – Phase I & II

Project Overview

With the support of the EU’s European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD), Agence Française de Développement (AFD) is implementing the Finance & Extension & Cooperative Development Project for Georgian Farmers (FinExCoop Georgia). The primary objectives of the Project are to improve access to finance for small-scale semi-commercial farms and agricultural cooperatives and to provide guidance, incentives and support to targeted farmers and cooperatives.

The Project specifically aims to (i) provide agro-loans to underfinanced farmers and agricultural cooperatives, (ii) make investments beyond working capital to boost the development of targeted beneficiaries; (iii) provide tailored economic, financial and potentially technical guidance to targeted beneficiaries in order to strengthen their creditworthiness and competitiveness, as well as provide demand-driven technical support to local financial institutions willing to increase their farmers’ and agricultural cooperatives’ portfolios.

Frankfurt School provides the following services under the FinExCoop Project:

• Identification of suitable financial products and services for Georgian agri-SMEs and mapping of farmers according to their need for finance, advisory and extension services;
• Development of a full-fledged pilot advisory scheme based on “market, technology, know-how and extension and financing” dimensions;
• Field trainings and advisory services for small-scale farmers and cooperatives to improve their technical, financial and managerial capacities;
• Capacity building through in-class trainings and Training-of-Trainers for Information and Consultation Centres, which provide technical and financial know-how and guidance to farmers and agricultural cooperatives;
• Adaptation of financial tools and procedures through the development of new financial products and delivery models for the agricultural finance units of local financial institutions;
• A policy dialogue platform, which allows main stakeholders in the agricultural sector to develop mutual understanding and identify ways to improve agriculture financing;
• Three international conferences on innovative agricultural finance, entrepreneurial cooperatives and value chain extension; and,
• Institutional mechanism for the sustainability of the advisory services scheme after Project termination.