The bank’s roots lie in agriculture. In 1898, two separate cooperative banks – one in Utrecht, the other in Eindhoven – were founded by rural entrepreneurs. The two entities served their rural communities independently for three-quarters of a century before merging in 1972.
Today, Rabobank is one of the biggest financial participants in agriculture, servicing the whole value chain – primary producers seeking credit for crop development, global traders wanting to cover commodity risks, investors seeking opportunities to invest in food and agriculture funds, or processors wanting to expand internationally.
The bank’s exposure to food and agriculture was €80.4 billion, as at June 30, with nearly three-quarters of those loans issued to the primary agricultural...
