British International Investment

Jacoma Estates Limited

Southern AfricaFood & Agriculture

Jacoma Estates is the parent company of Tropha Estates, an agribusiness in Northern Malawi developing over 1,000 hectares of irrigated macadamia orchards. 

The company is focused on producing macadamia nuts for export, and has three nucleus farms and a macadamia processing facility. It has also established smallholder outgrower schemes, supporting over 5,000 independent farmers who produce paprika and birds eye chilli for sale into export markets.

Jacoma is continuing to expand the irrigation and processing facilities at its sites to increase the yield and quality of its core products.

Our investment

Description of the investment.

We invested into Jacoma to help the company expand its farming and processing operations, in particular, to develop and expand its macadamia orchards.

In 2022 we invested an additional $2.5 million as part of a wider $6 million fundraise alongside existing shareholders. This was to finance further expansion of irrigated macadamia orchards and macadamia processing facilities, taking the total area of orchards to approximately 1280 hectares once fully planted.

Impact information

Applies to investments made from 2019 onwards. The tabs in this section define what we expect to achieve through the investment, assessing the potential impact of the investment against six dimensions of impact. You can find more details on our methodology of assessing impact here.

What?

Impact
  • Improve economic opportunities for employees and farmers (SDG 2.3, 8).
  • Improve climate change adaptation (SDG 13.1).

How?

Primary Secondary

Supporting and creating jobs by expanding orchards and improving agri-infrastructure on newly developed land, as well as purchasing crops from over 5,000 outgrowers, supporting rural livelihoods.

Improving water efficiencies through improved irrigation infrastructure in macadamia plantations.

Who?

Stakeholder Geography Characteristics
Employees

Northern Malawi

Includes seasonal and permanent, mostly unskilled (88 per cent), 40 per cent are women.

Suppliers (outgrowers)

Northern Malawi

54 per cent are women, 25 per cent are young people.

Planet

Northern Malawi

Improved water-efficiencies in macadamia irrigated plantations and better water management.

How much?

Scale Depth/Duration

Target of 1,231 total jobs by 2024 and outgrower reach of 5,000 by 2020. Target of 1,280 hectares of macadamia orchards with efficient irrigation.

Jacoma pays unskilled employees materially above minimum wage, as well as providing benefits and on-going training. Jacoma aligns to our E&S standards on labour and health and safety. An equal opportunity policy supports the female workforce.

Jacoma is deploying more efficient irrigation systems which will improve water efficiencies and help the plantations become more climate resilient.

Contribution/additionality

Contribution/additionality
  • Financial additionality: Capital is not offered at all.
  • Value additionality: Our technical assistance programme, BII Plus, has been used, alongside support from AgDevCo, to develop an outgrower programme. BII Plus has also supported the development of a community irrigation scheme

Risk

Execution Risk
  • Greenfield primary agriculture is challenging and subject to Execution risk, which brings risk to delivering the intended impact.

Environmental and social information

  • Environmental and social summary

    A high-level description of the environmental and social aspects of the investment. This may include a summary of key environmental and social risks identified during environmental and social due diligence (ESDD); key elements of an environmental and social action plan (ESAP); or ways in which we plan to support the investee improve environmental and social standards, such as through their environmental and social management system (ESMS); as well as any other priority areas agreed with the investee.

  • Environmental and social risk

    A risk category rating, which indicates the level of environmental and social risk associated with an investment. For an explanation of the categorisations used, see here. We consistently provide an environmental and social risk category for all investments screened from 2023 onwards.

Environmental and social summary

We continue working with the company to extend their ESMS and practices to new farms via regular engagement with the environmental and social manager and senior management, and participation in an ESG sub-committee to the Board. Areas of focus for the new farms include land acquisition, stakeholder engagement as well as climate and water risks.

Environmental and social risk

Medium-High

Reporting and Complaints Mechanism

The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism allows anyone outside BII to report alleged breaches of the business integrity or environmental and social provisions of BII’s Policy on Responsible Investing. This includes breaches made by BII, a BII investee, or a portfolio company of a fund in which BII has invested. The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism Rules are available here. Reports and complaints can be submitted by email to reportsandcomplaints@bii.co.uk or by mail. See more details on our Reporting and Complaints Mechanism here.

For any other general enquiries contact us at enquiries@bii.co.uk

  • Key facts

    Last updated

    When the last quarterly update of the website database occurred.

    :
    June 2024
    Project number

    An identifier number shared by investments in the same project.

    :
    D2383
    Status

    The current status of the investment (green flag for active and red flag for exited).

    :
    Active
    Region

    The geographical region where the country is located. We currently invest in Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and the Caribbean. In 2023, BII’s investment mandate was extended allowing it to invest in regional funds linked to Ukraine, with the majority of activity expected to begin post-war. Investments outside these regions were made prior to 2012 under previous investment mandates.

    :
    Southern Africa
    Country

    The countries where the investment delivers impact. Where impact is delivered in multiple countries, this is indicated.

    :
    Malawi
    Sector

    We prioritise those sectors that facilitate development and need our capital the most. Our priority sectors contribute towards many of the Sustainable Development Goals. They range from investing in the power infrastructure that will provide people with better access to electricity, to investing in financial institutions that direct capital to the individuals and businesses that need it the most.

    :
    Food & Agriculture

    We provide capital in the following ways: directly – through direct equity, direct debt, guarantees and other non-intermediated financial instruments; and indirectly – principally through investment funds.

    For direct investments and fund investments, this is the date BII committed capital to the investments. This is typically the date on which legal agreements are signed by all parties.

    For the portfolio companies of our fund investments, this is the date (either the month or the quarter) on which the fund committed capital to the portfolio company.

    For direct equity investments, this is the date at which British International Investment exited the investment.

    For debt investments, this is the date at which the final debt repayment was made.

    For funds, this is the date at which the fund was terminated.

    For underlying fund investments, this is the date at which the fund manager exited the investment.

    The total amount committed, per financial instrument, per investment, on the date BII becomes subject to a binding legal obligation to provide funding or assume a contingent liability. This information is provided in US dollars.

    For direct investments, this is the amount that BII has committed to the business or project. For fund investments, this is the amount BII has committed to the fund.

    The currency in which the investment was made.

    Investment type :
    Equity
    Start date :
    May 2022
    Amount :
    $2.5m
    Currency of investment :
    USD
    Domicile

    The company or investment fund’s place of incorporation.

    :
    United Kingdom
    Climate finance

    Indicates whether the investment is climate finance qualified or partially climate finance qualified and the type of climate finance (adaptation, mitigation or both). We define climate finance using the multilateral development bank (MDB) and the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) Common Principles climate finance methodology. See Common Principles for Climate Mitigation Finance Tracking and Common Principles for Climate Change Adaptation Finance Tracking. We provide the climate finance qualification and type for commitments from 2020 onwards, which is when we launched our Climate Change Strategy.

    :
    Partially qualified
    Climate finance type:
    Adaptation

Related investments made by BII into this company:

Investment name Commitment Region Sector Start date Status
Investment 01 $8m Southern Africa Food & Agriculture December 2016 Active
Investment 02 $1.2m Southern AfricaSouthern Africa Food & Agriculture July 2019 Active

Subscribe to receive our latest news and updates