A champion for young women in Indonesian agribusiness
When Aulia had a business idea to boost the agriculture supply chain in her region, her focus on women and community made her the right fit for Good Return’s Impact Investment fund. Thanks to the partnership between Good Return and Indonesian fintech CROWDE, women like Aulia can access finance and technical support to build a sustainable business model and drive a women-led local economy.
Aulia, from Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, is paving the way as a gender champion of women-led agribusiness in her community. Despite being only 24, Aulia owns her own agricultural commodity trading business, buying and selling horticultural products. With 15 employees to date, she is driven to serve her community and improve the conditions of the agricultural sector in her province, especially for female farmers.
After studying agriculture, Aulia began to notice deep-seated issues within her sector. Because of increased market competition, local farmers (many female), were selling their crops at unsustainably low prices. This meant these farmers were not making enough income to cover the cost of capital for the previous season, and could not afford to continue planting and providing crops for the future. This issue was not only creating unstable livelihoods for these farmers but had negative impacts further up the value-chain — including for businesses such as Aulia’s.
Aulia was motivated by these challenges faced by farmers. Her plan was to grow her business so she could absorb crops at fair prices, increasing the income of farmers in her province and giving them more financial independence. This would also improve the reliability of products coming to her own business and supply chain. Crucially, it was at this stage Aulia encountered a further issue — as a young female agricultural entrepreneur Aulia was unable to access state-owned loan guarantees. Unfortunately, this is a situation that many women in Indonesia face due to a lack of sufficient collateral, lack of history with formal banking institutions and prevailing gender norms.
Aulia was able to overcome these barriers to financial inclusion when she received a $25,000 loan and 50% loan guarantee from Good Return’s Impact Investing fund. Aulia was chosen to be part of this fund by local fintech CROWDE, which recognised the strength of her business plan and her goals to improve the business opportunities of women in her community. CROWDE is supported by Good Return to not only fund business owners, but to provide vital technical support on the ground and ensure there is a gender lens across all investment. CROWDE also focuses on quality in supply chains, making sure local farmers are accessing high quality seeds and fertilisers.
Aulia is determined to challenge long-held gender norms in a historically male-dominated industry: proving that women can own their own businesses, manage their own financial affairs and in the process, improve the livelihoods of their communities. Aulia continues to focus on financial challenges facing the 800,000 female farmers in her province, and is now developing SME’s on her farm to support more crop farmers.