On November 10th, the CGF’s Environmental Sustainability Director Ignacio Gavilan and Sustainable Supply Chain Initiative Manager Sonja Schmid attended IDH (the Sustainable Trade Initiative)’s 10th Anniversary Conference in the Netherlands.

IDH was established in 2008 to bring businesses, governments and non-profit institutions together in public-private coalitions that develop new business models and financing structures for the sustainable production of and trade in chiefly tropical crops. More than 400 CEOs, ministers, financiers, NGOs and experts came together for the celebratory conference to co-design the “Future of Sustainable Trade”. A key theme at the conference was the magic of collaboration and the challenges of building successful public-private partnerships.

In her capacity as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, Queen Máxima of the Netherland took part in the High Level Breakfast Meeting and delivered a speech to delegates about the importance of value chain financing, so that products and services increase in value in each link of the production and delivery chain. The Queen then spoke about the role of technology in agricultural financing which can help farmers to build up a credit history and can provide an insight into the activities of farmers, customers and financing institutions. The Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Sigrid Kaag, also delivered a speech.

Ignacio Gavilan said “My colleague Sonja and I were very pleased to attend this important event which marks 10 years of making an enormous difference in the field of sustainability. We want to congratulate IDH wholeheartedly on this and look forward to following your future successes”.