How Standard Chartered is Pioneering Agricultural SLL

Money has always been the engine of change.

As global trade transitions through decarbonisation, deforestation-free mandates and rising obligations around human rights due diligence, fintech-driven financial models are emerging as powerful levers for sustainable transformation.

Sustainability-linked loans (SLLs) and green credit facilities – once experimental instruments among specialised lenders – now sit at the core of how digital finance is influencing corporate performance and risk across essential supply chains.

Bringing this fintech-enabled financing to life are COFCO International and Standard Chartered, which have closed a US$435m sustainability-linked revolving credit facility to support responsible agriculture in South America.

This transaction stands as the region’s first publicly disclosed SLL in the agricultural sector focused solely on social and resilience outcomes – underscoring how technology-enabled finance can be a catalyst for sustainable change at scale.

“This facility represents a deep integration of our sustainability goals with corporate financial management, reinforcing our long-standing commitment to responsible sourcing and supply chain safeguards across key origination markets,” says Helen Song, Chief Financial Officer at COFCO International. 

“By innovatively linking financing to measurable progress in certified sourcing and supplier due diligence, the structure supports the continued expansion of responsible and certified sustainable agricultural supply chains and improved market access for producers.”

Financing the future of agriculture in South America

The loan represents an innovative financial structure that fuses sustainable performance with capital access through data-driven accountability.

COFCO International’s financing terms are tied to two externally verified performance indicators, embedding transparency into the loan’s digital oversight.

The first targets growth in the volume of grains and oilseeds certified under internationally recognised responsible agriculture standards – including the COFCO Responsible Agriculture Standard – which reinforces ethical production, land stewardship and traceable sourcing across its operational regions.

The second goal focuses on enhancing supplier due diligence and labour safeguards, with particular emphasis on Brazil’s soy and corn supply chains – critical components of global food and feed markets that have long faced social and environmental scrutiny.

COFCO International’s performance against these metrics directly influences the loan’s pricing, linking measurable sustainability progress to margin adjustments.

Stronger results translate into improved financing terms, aligning purpose with profit.

Assessed under the Sustainability Linked Loan Principles, this innovative structure embeds quantifiable accountability into capital deployment – demonstrating how fintech-enabled finance can turn corporate sustainability pledges into outcomes with tangible economic stakes.

COFCO International: building responsible supply chains

As the international agriculture arm of China’s COFCO Group, COFCO International stands among the world’s leading agri-traders, sourcing, processing and transporting grains, oilseeds and other commodities across more than 35 countries.

Its scale and influence in South America – notably in Brazil and Argentina – position it as a critical node in global food security and supply chain resilience.

In recent years, the company has reinforced its sustainability framework with a stronger focus on risk intelligence and digital traceability, addressing challenges linked to land-use change, labour standards and supply-chain transparency.

Its Responsible Agriculture Standard establishes the foundation for ethical, low-impact farming practices, while technology-enabled traceability systems provide data to identify and mitigate social and environmental risks across sourcing regions.

How Standard Chartered is expanding the reach of green finance

For Standard Chartered, the deal marks a further step in its strategy to mobilise capital for sustainable growth across emerging markets.

The bank continues to pioneer digitally enabled sustainability-linked instruments that extend beyond conventional environmental metrics to encompass social equity, inclusion and supply-chain resilience.

“Leveraging our sustainable finance expertise to help close Standard Chartered’s first social resilience themed sustainability linked loan is an important step,” says Marisa Drew, Chief Sustainability Officer at Standard Chartered. 

“Sustainability-linked financing has principally revolved around mitigating GHG emissions and managing environmental risks and impacts of business operations, however for COFCO International, we have used our deep supply chain expertise to structure a transaction that focuses on addressing social and resilience risks to their global supply chains.”

Field-level impact

South America’s agriculture sector remains a cornerstone of global food security but faces mounting pressure from deforestation, labour rights challenges and climate volatility.

Improving land-use governance, supplier due diligence and certification frameworks has become vital to safeguarding both output and integrity.

By linking loan margins directly to verifiable progress in responsible sourcing and labour standards, the COFCO–Standard Chartered facility transforms financing into a mechanism for measurable impact.

It rewards continuous improvement across supplier networks, accelerates the professionalisation of farming operations and aligns regional production with the sustainability expectations of regulators and international markets.

This fintech-enabled design offers a scalable model for the wider agribusiness sector.

As scrutiny intensifies around commodities such as soy, corn and palm oil, embedding data-driven sustainability metrics into financial frameworks is poised to become the new benchmark.

Ultimately, the partnership illustrates how finance – amplified by technology – can operate as both carrot and compass, directing global value chains toward practices that prioritise people, ecosystems and long-term resilience.

“The closing of this pioneering Sustainability-Linked Loan with COFCO International reflects our commitment to progress commerce in a way that delivers real impact for communities and supports a just transition,” says Wan Thonh, Head of Coverage, SG & ASEAN, Standard Chartered. 

“This milestone demonstrates the strength of our long-standing relationship with COFCO International and the trust they place in Standard Chartered, which enabled us to originate and structure a solution aligned to both COFCO International’s sustainability ambitions and our own values.”