(Adds more details on paragraph 3, comments from executive in paragraphs 4-5)
SAO PAULO, May 29 (Reuters) - The Brazilian unit of commodities trader Bunge launched on Monday a fintech with $500 million available to provide funding for deals between farmers and retailers of agricultural inputs.
The new business, called Fincrop, will grant credit after a risk assessment focused on social and environmental criteria, the firm said.
Bunge will verify sustainable practices through the monitoring of data from the farms, including satellite imagery and real-time field information.
The company does not finance farmers directly, but instead engages in barter operations, wherein farmers sell a portion of their crops in advance in exchange for agricultural inputs from retailers.
"We saw, throughout the value chain, strong demand for a financial product that reconciles controlled risk with a verifiable and traceable ESG component," said the firm's head of finance in Brazil, Florence Shoshany. (Reporting by Roberto Samora; Editing by Anthony Esposito)
