Clarmondial
Food Securities Fund

The Clarmondial Food Securities Fund (FSF) grew out of nearly a decade of advisory work by Clarmondial in emerging markets agricultural supply chains. Founded by Tanja Havemann and Fred Werneck in 2010, Clarmondial has assisted institutional investors looking to deploy capital in the sector and international commodity buyers seeking to secure supply while responsibly supporting growers. While playing a consultative role over the years, Clarmondial had patiently laid plans to raise their own funds. FSF was launched in 2021 and leverages Clarmondial’s detailed knowledge of the various incentives and desires of supply chain participants. FSF primarily lends to aggregators and traders who buy directly from small producers and sell to larger international value chain partners (VCPs). Clarmondial has been successful in securing support from these corporate VCPs to provide lending guarantees for the fund. When combined with additional guarantee support from the U.S. DFC, the FSF model has meaningful protections for lending that can be risky and volatile given swings in weather, commodity pricing, and other macro factors. Whereas we find most impact funds pursue a conventional closed-end structure, FSF has been raised in a somewhat unique open-ended manner. This is aided by the shorter, seasonal duration of Clarmondial loans that can afford liquidity for investors when required. FSF has an anchor commitment from the Global Environment Fund (GEF). Ceniarth has made a $500K commitment to the fund.