English customer newsletter

Customer Services and Business Development Team

Welcome to our new-look Shared Interest customer newsletter. This newsletter will be sent to you four times a year and is designed to inform you of our latest lending news, updates on how to get the most out of your facility and examples of the industry challenges faced by fair trade businesses today.

We are pleased to announce that we have updated the Shared Interest website and that it is now up and running with lots of stories about you, our customers. You can find the website here www.shared-interest.com. We are also aiming to add more stories of customers so please tell us about the exciting activities you are planning. If sending an email seems too formal then we are all on Skype and happy to have a chat.

I hope you enioy this issue.

Malcolm Curtis, Customer Services Manager

We welcome four new staff members to our overseas offices: Brissy Cáceres, Customer Representative, Peru Christiana Asante, Customer Representative, Ghana Josephine Mwasaru, Regional Office Administrator, Kenya Kodzo Korkortsi, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Ghana

Let’s Talk Coffee - 9 October, Panama, Central America

We will have representatives at the following events: ICO – Bridging the gap between farmers and finance 23 September, London, UK CSAF (Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance) 6/7 November, Brussels, Belgium To find out more email us at france.villeneuve@shared-interest.com

DID YOU KNOW…

We currently lend 14% of our portfolio to fruit growers like Association Ton.

This is a reminder that our interest rates are variable. The Shared Interest Prime Rate is linked to the cost of borrowing the relevant currency, thus it is affected by changes made by the central bank that controls monetary policy for that region/country. Interest is calculated daily on the outstanding balance.

Shared Interest has over 8,900 UK investors who have collectively invested over £30 million.

These individuals in the UK choose to use some of their money in this way because they share our vision of a world where justice is at the heart of trade finance.

Each individual has invested between £100 and £100,000. This money is then pooled together and used to provide finance to businesses all over the world. Once the money is paid back it is recycled and reused time and time again.

So far in 2014 we have seen record levels of investment.

“For me, I know that whilst my money is with Shared Interest, it is being lent out time and time again to businesses all around the world to help them to grow and provide an income for their families. It benefits whole communities.”

UK Investor, Christine Lloyd

Our goal is to increase our membership to 10,000 UK investors, and to increase investment to £33 million by 2015.

Increasing our UK investors and investment will mean we have more money available to loan out to businesses all over the world.

To commemorate the achievements and contributions of all our supporters, in the UK and overseas, we have commissioned an anniversary flag.

Five flags will make their way from staff, to customers, to investors, to volunteers, around the world, collecting reflections and signatures along the way. The flags will complete their journey at a special anniversary event in 2015.

The flags will be joined together, representing relationships formed over many years. You can follow the progress of the flags on our website.

For 15 years, Candela has used Shared Interest finance to sustain a precious relationship in the Peruvian Amazon.

university, harnessing the power of the nut harvest for the whole community.

The government grants a 40 year concession to the castaĂąeros, allowing them to farm the brazil nut trees in clearly defined locations. Candela provides pre-finance for their castaĂąeros, which is borrowed from Shared Interest Society.

Families collect nuts during the harvest period and Candela buys the raw and peeled material. The nuts are stored in their warehouse in the rainforest area. The nuts are processed in the plant in Puerto Maldonado then shipped to another plant in Lima, where the export quality checks take place and products such as powders and oils are produced for trade.

Producers have become more participative in the local area, and have been able to begin sending their children to

Association Ton was one of the first organisations in Burkina Faso to dry mangoes as a means of preservation, and of adding value to the product they send to market.

Three years ago, Association Ton began dealing in raw cashew nuts. Plans for a new cashew processing unit, financed in part with a Shared Interest term loan, will help Association Ton to continue to adapt and grow.

As part of this project, Association Ton has purchased a truck, and they are improving existing processing and

Plans for the next two to three years include a new processing plant, which we are helping to finance as well as growth in local and international markets.

We look forward to continuing our longstanding support for Candela, whose respect for one of nature’s simplest gifts holds the key to both enterprise and ecology; a truly sustainable business.

storage facilities. They hope that these improvements will bring a threefold increase in production, increase profits, and reduce production losses as well as increase employment.

The Fairtrade premium has been used for a range of projects.

These include school facilities and resources, sponsorship of 150 children, hospital facilities and medical supplies including a maternity unit, free mosquito nets for families of employees, and a rest room for nursing mothers on site.

Shared Interest has provided finance to Mpanga when most needed and when it is difficult to obtain financing from other lending institutions.

Mpanga, General Manager, Rogers Siima

Shared Interest financing to Andean Naturals is crucial.

Without this funding we would have difficulty paying the farmers on time and developing our farmer base. It is an integral part of the supply chain.

Andean Naturals, Quinoa Specialist, Sergio Nunez de Arco Firstly, we will seek to widen and deepen our support for fair trade and work more actively where other lenders do not.

Earlier this year we commenced a Strategic Review.

We want to understand better the opportunities and challenges facing you, our customers. We also wish to review the social finance landscape and how Shared Interest should position itself going forward.

This month, our board approved our Strategic Review work to date, and we are going to begin to implement some of our plans.

This will require us to be particularly innovative – in the development of new lending products for customers and in considering how to support customers who are outside of our current markets.

We will continue to listen to our investors and to inspire a new generation of investors by giving them more online facilities.

We want to work with other lenders and to encourage more supportive and fair lending practices.

We will keep you updated on our progress in future Shared Interest News

Shared Interest Society has representatives in the following regions: Accra, Ghana Lima, Peru Nairobi, Kenya Newcastle, UK San JosĂŠ, Costa Rica Email: sales@shared-interest.com Website: www.shared-interest.com Skype: see website for contact details @SharedInterest We would like to hear from you if you have a story you would like to share. Has your Shared Interest loan or credit facility transformed your business in a really unique way? Or maybe you can advise other businesses on how you faced a certain challenge and overcame it. Get in touch with us at sales@shared-interest.com if you would like your business story featured.