Rabobank, a leader in food and agribusiness financing, announced it is expanding its Canadian offerings to include lending to primary producers.

"We are excited to offer financial solutions directly to Canadian agricultural producers," said Paul Beiboer, Rabobank North America CEO. "With 25 years of experience in the Canadian food and agriculture sector, we've gained a deep understanding of the marketplace and how Rabobank can best serve Canada's leading growers."

By expanding its product line, Rabobank Canada will now offer innovative financing, risk management, and partnership solutions specifically designed to address the complex needs of agricultural producers today.

"Rabobank strives to provide financial services to help growers be economically, environmentally and socially sustainable for generations to come," said Shawn Smeins, Head of Rural Business North America. "The bottom line is we want to help our customers feed the world. We believe our mission and business objectives are well aligned with those of Canadian producers."

Rabobank Canada opened in 1997 as a corporate bank. Today, Rabobank Canada and Rabo Securities Canada, Inc., offer loans, access to debt capital markets, asset-based financing, securitizations, private placements, mergers and acquisitions services, and risk management products for clients across the entire food and agribusiness value chain.

Through a knowledge-driven approach to relationship banking, Rabobank Canada has grown to serve major corporations in the food and agricultural sectors, as well as individual farmers through third-party vendor finance partnerships.

Expanding Rabobank Canada's product portfolio to include farm lending has been an ongoing project for nearly three years. All national and provincial regulatory compliance and licensing requirements have been met and the team is looking toward the next steps.

Roxane Lieverse, a veteran finance executive in the ag sector, recently joined Rabobank to serve as Head of Canada Agricultural Banking. She will lead the lending operation and is building a dedicated team of relationship managers in Canada.

"We do business with our customers at their kitchen table," Lieverse added. "Our relationship managers meet face-to-face with clients to listen to their needs and understand their operations. We aim to build trust through those conversations and learn how we can add value to their business through financial products and services."

Leveraging its global reach and capabilities, Rabobank Canada will offer short- and long-term debt options to farmers and ranchers.

"We will be a one-stop shop for Canada's agricultural term and operational lending needs, as well as other financial services and risk management products," said Marc Drouin, General Manager and Principal Officer of Rabobank Canada. "We've been committed to food and agriculture globally since 1898 and we understand and value this industry and our customers."

With more than 43 million hectares of arable land, Canada is essential to meeting global demand for food and eliminating food insecurity. Already today, Canada is the world's fifth-largest exporter of agricultural products and the government recently adopted a trade target of 75 billion CAD by 2025.

"Canada is a unique food and agriculture market," Beiboer added. "The number of young farmers is actually growing and the country is on track to become the world's second-largest food and agricultural products exporter. It's an attractive and logical market for Rabobank to offer a full suite of financing options to existing corporate clients, as well as Canadian farmers and ranchers."