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FAST Notes
FAST's support continues to grow with new members joining each week, doubling to over 100 since the summer. The newcomers to push FAST over 100 are Cafetalera Los Compadres and UCA Miraflor, major cooperatives from Nicaragua, and the Agence Africaine pour le Développement International, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Benin. FAST is very proud to welcome its 48 new members, and looks forward to expanding its representation of the sustainable trade finance arena.
More than 600 producers from across Latin America met with representatives of top social lending institutions for the first time at a FAST-organized panel part of the Ramacafe International Coffee Conference held in September.
The event put a spotlight on some of FAST's key lending members and associates including Alterfin, Root Capital, Shared Interest, and Verde Ventures. The networking event enabled lenders to present their unique financial services available to sustainable producers in Latin America and to field access-related financing questions from an enthusiastic group of producer participants. FAST then facilitated further outreach and dialog by hosting a 'trade finance' booth where lenders and producers met for more in-depth discussions. As well, all FAST members received a 20% discount on their registration fees for Ramacafe.
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In less than a week, FAST will host a networking event bringing hundreds of sustainable coffee producers together with key social lending institutions for the first time. Sept 1st at the Ramacafe International Coffee Conference, FAST will gather some of its key members and other social lending institutions to present opportunities and areas for development for lending to the sustainable coffee sector. Producers and lenders will have the opportunity to network, discuss areas for possible collaboration, and share critical information.
Read more.This September 1-3 2008, in Managua Nicaragua, the Ramacafe International Coffee Conference will bring together members of the coffee industry to discuss and share knowledge on issues facing the coffee sector today, and FAST will be there. In partnership with FAST, Ramacafe has also generously offered to give all FAST members who register for the conference within the month of July a 20% discount on fees.
Read more.Many people have now come to accept the need for a social performance bottom line in microfinance to complement a financial performance bottom line, as was demonstrated at a recent "Taskforce" meeting in Paris. Following in the footsteps of microfinance, FAST will work closely with the socially focused lending community to develop an Impact Assessment Tool aimed specifically for use by lenders who cater to the sustainable small and medium sized enterprise (SMEs) sector.
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