13th March 2019

To mark Bonsucro Global Week, we’ve caught up with some of the speakers to find out about their work driving a more sustainable sugarcane supply chain. Arindom Datta of Rabobank was part of the panel on Smallholders Inclusivity – read some of his insights below.

You will be speaking at the session “Smallholders: creating an inclusive supply chain”. What is Rabobank’s role in strengthening smallholder inclusivity?

Rabobank is globally the leading bank in Food and Agribusiness and the Industry ESG leader, ranked number one Sustainable Bank Worldwide by Sustainalytics. We have special products to focus on sustainability financing the F&A supply chain and inclusive supply chains is one of the key features that we focus on globally.  

Smallholders represent a core part of the many sugarcane-producing economies around the world. How can finance support their journey towards sustainability?

Finance can facilitate all agricultural supply chains. It is essential for smallholder farmers to have access to finance to support their sugarcane business and be able to invest in environmentally-friendly sustainable cane cultivation.

What are some of the challenges smallholders might face as part of their journey toward sustainable practices?

The key challenges are lack of knowledge of sustainability practices, of access to markets and to finance. These challenges are greater for smallholder farmers that are not a part of any structured supply chain. This is where Rabobank is able to help support them.

The theme of this year’s Bonsucro Global Week is ‘Scaling Impacts’. What is one outcome you’d like to see from multi-stakeholder discussions at Bonsucro Global Week to achieve sustainable sugarcane at scale?

I would like to see a firm commitment by all the supply chain players to commit to the best of class sustainability practices and to focus on inclusive and sustainable supply chains.

 

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