In August 2011, Phatisa concluded its first transaction to invest US$ 10 million alongside the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Limited (FINNFUND) and the Company’s Sponsors, in Goldtree a palm oil plantation and milling company in Sierra Leone, representing a total investment of US$ 20 million.
The US Overseas Private Investment Corporation pours $150 million into fund targeting farmland acquisitions in Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia
A code of conduct developed by the African Development Bank that is being used as a guideline for investments by the African Agriculture Fund.
The fund will operate according to a Code of Conduct for Land Acquisition and Land Use in to prevent unsustainable practices.
African governments need to raise their level of accountability and ensure that they improve and protect their own food security through quid pro quo side-agreements negotiated when they lease or sell their arable land to foreign interests, says Keith Mullin of Thompson Reuters
The African Agriculture Fund and its portfolio companies commit themselves to these principles and guidelines in undertaking agricultural and agribusiness investments across Africa.
The Fund will operate according to a Socially Responsible Investment Manual that features, for the first time in the area of Agribusiness private equity, a Code of Conduct for Land Acquisition and Land Use in Agricultural and Agribusiness Projects to prevent unsustainable practices in land acquisition and land use.