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Bucharest, November 16th, 2022

Tarfin, the regional leader in the agricultural financing sector (agri-fintech), has reached the threshold of 100 distributors on the Romanian market. The company of Turkish origin ticked this number only seven months after its launch on the local market. The expansion's rapidity also translates into a reassurance of the commitment to support Romanian farmers and input distributors.

Being among the first to implement technological financial support solutions for distributors of agricultural inputs in Romania, Tarfin provides an easily accessible, fully digitized platform through which farmers can honor their contracts after harvest.

In the spring and fall campaigns, the company funded a wide range of products to establish wheat, corn, sunflower, barley, and canola crops. Most of the procurement requests with payment at harvest were for products in the categories of seeds and solid fertilizers. Thus, at the end of October, Tarfin intermediated agricultural inputs acquisitions to distributors and farmers cultivating ​​over 20,000 hectares.

"The fact that in the first year after the launch on the Romanian market, we managed to reach 100 distributors of agricultural inputs proves that both distributors and farmers have faith in us. The reasoning behind the development of our solutions is to support the agriculture ecosystem to achieve the expected productivity of the harvests", said Adina China-Birta, Director General Tarfin IFN Romania.

Farmers have the advantage that Tarfin solutions are fast and simple, and the period in which they can pay for purchases is generous, reaching up to a year. Currently, there is no other financing partner in Romania that offers farmers the flexibility to purchase pay-at-harvest products from over 100 distributors with a diverse product range.

Distributors can register a request in a few minutes using only two documents, the ID card and the APIA declaration. The process is transparent, and during the introduction of the request, the distributor has access to the transaction's final price that does not change throughout the contract without being conditioned by the price or the products sold.

Currently, the Tarfin platform focuses on meeting the needs of farmers who grow vegetables or raise animals but still finances the full range of agricultural inputs, from seeds to chemicals and fertilizers. Also of interest to this company is the segment of spare parts and equipment of small values ​​that fall within the payment capacity of a single agricultural year.

"In the context where global agriculture is facing unprecedented challenges, we want to reach as many distributors and farmers on the local market as possible who can have an important impact, considering the fact that Romania had, in 2021, a record production of cereals, which exceeded 27 million tons, according to the INS", concluded Adina China-Birta.

With 100 distributors in the portfolio and a quick response time, a farmer can find out in a day whether his request is approved. Moreover, Tarfin uses a machine-learning algorithm that will soon cover most requests received.

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About Tarfin Tarım A.Ş.

Tarfin is a company founded in 2017 in Turkey by Mehmet Memecan. With the support of Quona Capital, Syngenta Group Ventures, Yara Growth Ventures, Collective Spark Fund, Wamda, and Elevator Ventures - the international shareholders of Raiffeisen Bank, the agri-fintech company has expanded its operations starting from 2022 to the Romanian market. Tarfin aims to facilitate farmers' access to financing quickly and conveniently with the help of technology and a broad network of distributors.

Tarfin received technical assistance in financial reporting and independent auditing under the "Pre-Investment Preparation Program" of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in 2019.

In 2020, Tarfin was entitled to technical support assistance offered to micro-finance companies under the Employment and Social Innovation Program (EaSI) of the European Commission.