Green Financing for Agrifood SMEs in South Africa

The greening of finance – an alignment of all forms of finance with carbon-neutral investments – has ushered in an era of “survival of the greenest” which risks leaving SMEs behind, with serious implications on food security and climate resilience in food systems. GreenFi investigates how South African Agrifood SMEs navigate access to green financing and how this influences their climate-responsiveness. The project achieves these overarching questions through three related goals, which form part of the work packages: a) the project aims to analyze and document the diffusion of green financing practices and norms from global levels and their localization for Agrifood SMEs; b) analyse factors influencing Agrifood SMEs' access to green financing, and how they shape their financing mix; c) Analyze how the share of green finance in the SMEs`financing mix influence their climate-responsiveness, including actions, perceptions and attitudes.