MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Beneficial Returns Invests in Ananas Anam, Buyer of Agricultural Waste from Farmers in the Philippines for Faux-leather Textile Pinatex

Beneficial Returns, a US-based investor, recently lent UK-based textile manufacturer Ananas Anam an undisclosed amount of capital to install five decorticators for “extracting the cellulose fibers from leaves” that pineapple farmers would otherwise burn as waste. Once extracted, the farmers “with a little training… can process tons of these fibers [thus] generating substantial additional income” by selling them to Ananas Anam. The firm further processes the fiber to make Pinatex, a textile that can be used in place of leather. This reduces the environmental impacts of farmers burning waste as well as from “the notoriously dirty leather industry.” Ananas Anam is a for-profit company that was founded in 2013 to develop Pinatex. The company recorded annual revenue of USD 1.57 million for 2019.

Founded in 2015 in the city of San Francisco, Beneficial Returns operates a debt investment fund offering loans of USD 50,000 to USD 500,000 for equipment related to sustainable agriculture, sustainable energy, waste reduction and poverty reduction in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Beneficial Return has 12 investors. The size of its fund has not been released.

By Nathan Kiplagat, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Beneficial Returns press release
https://www.beneficialreturns.com/news/first-loan-in-the-philippines

Ananas Anam homepage
https://www.ananas-anam.com/

Dun & Bradstreet profile on Ananas Anam
https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.ANANAS_ANAM_ESPA%C3%91A_SL.1edee19680d220551115b35b156f95a2.html

Beneficial Returns homepage
http://www.beneficialreturns.com

Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at http://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.