CSAF has been collecting lending data from our members since 2013. Over the period 2013-2022, CSAF members cumulatively lent $6.2B to 1,646 businesses that have supported 6.9M smallholder farmers.
CSAF member lending in 2021 is characterized by the following:
- After contracting during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, CSAF lending rebounded in 2021 to set a high-water mark for the nine years in which CSAF has collected data.
- In 2021, CSAF members disbursed $756M to 641 businesses across 59 countries.
- Even as topline lending grew significantly, the total number of borrowers dipped slightly as COVID continued to restrict lenders’ travel as well as their risk appetite for serving new borrowers.
- As a sector, additionality among CSAF members is high with the majority (76%) of borrowers in 2021 receiving financing from only one CSAF member.
- Average loan size increased to its highest level over the past nine years, reaching $983K for existing borrowers and $760K for new borrowers.
- The increase in disbursements in 2021 was mostly driven by larger loans.
- Normalized portfolio quality continued to improve as CSAF members worked with more mature businesses at larger loan sizes, while write-offs on outstanding loans have remained high.
Learn more by reading our State of the Sector reports and visiting the CSAF Open Data Portal.