Tender for Assessing the scalability of Warehouse Financing for spic...

Purchaser's Detail

Tender's Details

CGAP is recruiting a vendor that will support our local partner in India. Our partner is an AgTech (from now on referred to as ‘The Partner-), procuring dried vegetables from smallholders, which it uses to produce and sell spices at local and international markets.The Partner is currently a market leader in the development of drying technology adapted to smalls cale agriculture, and partners with producer groups and agri-MSMEs to support groups of smallholders that pool their produce and manage the drying technology equipment to add value to their production and receive higher revenues from their crops.One of the most limiting constraints that the Partner faces to further scale its operations is the lack of working capital credit for its own procurement operations from smallholders. This type of financing would allow the Partner to significantly increase its purchases of processed vegetables from smallholders.The type of financial product deemed most appropriate for the Partner-s needs is warehouse financing. The very high seasonality of vegetable production forces the partner to procure most of its dried vegetable inventory needed for the whole year in a 3-month window. The Partner has acquired significant experience in storing the dried produce in warehouses and using it over time to meet its yearly demand. However, the partner reports it cannot meet the significantly higher demand for its spices, because it does not have the liquidity to purchase all the dry ingredients needed during the short time window.Although Warehouse Receipt Financing (WRF) is well developed in India, it is only for a few types of crops that have had higher economic and political relevance. Local financial institutions (FIs) have not developed such products for processed vegetables and spices, which have very strong linkages to smallholder livelihoods, especially those of women, and whose demand has significantly increased in the past decade. This is mainly because FIs lack the necessary k...