We all drink coffee in the morning, munch chocolate in the afternoon, wear cotton shirts, drive cars that run on gasoline or electricity, and hold in our hands mobile phones made with minerals from distant lands. In one way or another, our lives are wrapped around commodities. Every sip, every bite, every product we use carries the unseen labour of millions of farmers, miners, and workers across the Global South. Yet, for those who grow, mine, or harvest these products, the rewards are often measured in cents.
The Netherlands, sitting at the heart of the world’s commodity trade, plays a decisive role in this story. Its ports, processors, and traders shape the journey of countless goods. But the question remains: how much of the value created in these chains finds its way back to those at the beginning of it?
The Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) exists to offer a practical pathway toward fairer value sharing between producers and consumers—transforming empathy into impact investments that turn global prosperity into local opportunity.
Delivering Impact from Amsterdam to the Global South
Established in 1989 under the auspices of UNCTAD, the CFC was designed within the framework of the Integrated Programme for Commodities—first advanced at UNCTAD II (1968) and endorsed at UNCTAD IV in Nairobi (1976). Driven by the G77 and China, and inspired by the ideas of Prebisch and Singer, Gamani Corea’s vision of stabilizing commodity prices sought to build fair and stable markets—the backbone of many developing economies—enabling producers to capture greater value. When it became operational in 1991, hosted by the Netherlands, the Fund began its quiet but transformative mission to make trade work for the poor.
From its historic origins in UNCTAD to its home today in Amsterdam, the Common Fund for Commodities has evolved from a price-stabilisation mechanism into a development-finance institution supporting value addition, diversification, and resilience in commodity-producing countries.
This mission carries a deep moral echo from the Netherlands’ own history. In 1860, Eduard Douwes Dekker, writing under the pen name Multatuli, published Max Havelaar—a searing critique of colonial exploitation in the coffee trade. His rebellion against injustice gave voice to the voiceless and helped awaken Europe’s conscience to the suffering hidden behind its prosperity. In many ways, the CFC’s work today extends that same moral legacy: to ensure that those who grow finally share in the wealth their labour creates.
Over time, the CFC has grown into a major catalyst of change with nearly 480 projects across 104 countries, including 35 least developed and 15 of the most vulnerable “Absolute Sixteen[1]” nations. The Fund supported over 540,000 farmers, sustained 11,800 jobs, and brought more than 113,000 hectares under sustainable cultivation. These results reflect cumulative commitments exceeding USD 1 billion[2], proving that targeted, accountable investment can mobilise vast capital for inclusive
value chains.
At the heart of these investments lies a deliberate focus on women, girls, and youth—the true multipliers of rural transformation. The CFC prioritise women as potential agripreneurs, ensuring that they have equal access to finance, training, and technology. By empowering young innovators and women-led enterprises, the Fund is nurturing the next generation of value-chain leaders—those who will not only farm or trade but also transform and own their future.
Humanizing the Value Chain: Fairness in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Nearly half a century after Corea’s call for fairness, that same conviction now animates the CFC’s flagship Humanizing the Value Chain (HVC) initiative. HVC brings Corea’s vision into the era of artificial intelligence—deploying AI-driven analytics and digital traceability to make value distribution transparent, measurable, and fair.
HVC is built on three principles: that every transaction carries moral weight, that technology must serve humanity, and that living incomes and dignity are non-negotiable. HVC enables both brands and consumers to see how much of the value actually reaches the farmer. It transforms traceability from a compliance burden into a tool for justice, allowing producers’ dignity to meet consumers’ conscience.
If the Common Fund once served as the financial backbone of fairness, HVC is now its ethical and technological heart—turning the ideal of fair trade into a data-verified, AI-enabled reality.
Why the World Needs the CFC More Than Ever
The world today needs the Common Fund for Commodities far more than the larger international financial institutions. Unlike global lenders whose vast portfolios rarely reach small producers, the CFC’s theory of change takes it directly to the grassroots of the Global South. Through impact investments starting from USD 300,000, the Fund serves the “missing middle”—SMEs that larger institutions often overlook.
These small enterprises are also the frontline defenders of biodiversity and regenerative agriculture—especially vital across the developing world, where ecosystem loss directly undermines livelihoods. The CFC’s projects help farmers adopt climate-smart and regenerative practices that restore soils, protect pollinators, and secure water systems. Working from its Dutch base, the Fund draws upon a tradition of innovation in sustainable farming, circular production, and agri-tech to extend those lessons to the Global South—turning Dutch ingenuity into global resilience.
As the world transitions into an AI-driven era where traceability becomes the new norm, the CFC’s Humanizing the Value Chain model offers something unique: it adds “price” information to the chain of traceability, opening new vistas for transparency, fairness, and accountability in global trade. In a marketplace that too often gives smallholders a passing mention but not a fair return, the CFC stands as a bridge between technology, trade, and justice.
The Rise of Gen Z: A Market Shift with a Moral Compass
In a world where Generation Z is driving authoritarianism to the margins, this same cohort of young consumers is preparing to serve notice to brands and businesses that ignore justice and sustainability. Gen Z will not be silent customers of unfair systems; they will be active participants in building fair ones.
It is therefore high time for responsible brands to reach out to the CFC and become pioneers in piloting the HVC model—to demonstrate, in verifiable ways, how a few cents or euros added to each purchase can rebuild a world too long divided. This exchange of generosity is bound to happen, because Gen Z are sustainability-minded, value-driven, and ready to turn conscience into collective action.
A European Call to Action
As the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV) of the Netherlands warned in its 2025 report, “The Netherlands, Europe and the Global South in a Changing World Order,” Europe risks a “loss of relevance, influence and credibility” if it fails to rebuild genuine partnerships with the Global South. The AIV calls for a new approach—one based on equality, mutual respect, and shared long-term interests.
The Common Fund for Commodities offers Europe precisely such a bridge. It is an existing, multilateral instrument—trusted by more than 100 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America—that directly links finance with fairness, trade with trust, and investment with inclusion. The imbalance is structural: farmers and workers shoulder the risks of climate shocks, price volatility, and poverty, while the benefits accumulate elsewhere along the chain. Simply because the three billion-plus smallholders and workers of the Global South cannot march to our capitals or block our ports to demand justice does not mean their cause is silent. Through the CFC, Europe can give voice to that silence—helping these men and women live not in privilege, but in dignity, as every producer deserves.
At a time when the North–South divide is widening, the Netherlands and its European partners have both an opportunity and a responsibility to re-engage with the CFC. By joining or re-joining the Fund, European nations can turn the rhetoric of “equal partnership” into tangible cooperation—financing local processing, empowering smallholders, and supporting climate-resilient value chains that bind our shared prosperity together.
The Sevilla Commitment outcome of the once-in-a-decade UN Conference on Financing for Development has already made value addition and sustainable financing a political priority, while the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change (The Hague, 23 July 2025) has made it a legal obligation for all States to prevent environmental harm and assist those most vulnerable. Together, they define a new compact for justice—one economic, one moral, and one juridical—united by a single principle: fairness must be actionable. The world does not need another forum; it needs a fair mechanism that works. That mechanism already exists here in Amsterdam. It is time for Europe to come home to it.
Spain has shown the way in Sevilla. The Hague has set the obligation. Now is the moment for the Netherlands—and for Europe—to lead by helping to Humanize the Value Chain, from the port of Rotterdam to the fields of the Global South.
For comments, collaborations, or to join this journey of impact, please contact us at managing.director@common-fund.org and visit www.common-fund.org.
Written by Ambassador Sheikh Mohammed Belal,Managing Director, Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), Amsterdam
[1] “Absolute Sixteens” refers to the 16 countries globally that are simultaneously classified as both Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs). 13 countries in Africa (Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia) and 3 in Asia (Afghanistan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and Nepal).
[2] CFC Annual Report 2024