Economic growth
that supports local
communities

Volcafe is one of the world’s leading and largest coffee merchants trading Arabica and Robusta coffees. Established in 1851, Volcafe specialises in worldwide green coffee procurement, processing in origin countries and distribution to roaster partners. Volcafe provides access to all the major coffee producing origins and supplies beans for over 66 billion cups a year.

The club deal, led by Absa, and in partnership with the International Finance Corporation, is a one-year trade facility with an optional two-year renewal, in which Absa participates up to USD 30 million. The facility has been arranged for Volcafe’s subsidiaries in East Africa and will be used as working capital to facilitate the purchase of coffee cherries from smallholder farmers and local traders as well as green coffee beans from the auction systems. Through this facility, Volcafe will support more than 75,000 coffee farmers with safeguarding and improving their livelihoods, providing them access to market as well as to trainings, technical advice, and support from the long-running Volcafe Way farmer support programme. With 85 Volcafe Way agronomists on the ground in East Africa, the company will work directly with coffee farmers to assist and train them in sustainable production techniques and good agronomy practices. Absa is proud to work with Volcafe to support the farming community to pass profitable coffee production on to the next generation.

The transaction is testament to excellent team collaboration, the market leading capabilities of our Structured Trade and Commodity Finance (STCF) ARO team, our Agri Sector expertise, and our International Coverage presence in enabling us to support a key global client. It also illustrates our ability as a pan-African bank to collaborate with DFI’s that are strategically aligned with our commitment to support the growth and development of Africa by being customer centric and continuously evolving to meet our clients’ needs.