AFC’s 50th anniversary – 50 years of expertise and innovation worldwide

On 15 June 2023, we celebrated our company’s 50^th anniversary, cruising on a boat up and down the Rhine.

Since 1973, our company has stood for highly specialised expertise in international cooperation projects, strengthening and developing the agricultural and financial sectors around the globe. In 1984, AFC moved its headquarters from Düsseldorf to Bonn. In 1992, we launched our first project in financial sector development. Since 2007, we are part of the GOPA Consulting Group, making it Germany's largest development cooperation consultancy group.

“Expertise was generated during the history of our company by implementing numerous projects on behalf of our contracting partners and in close exchange with different GOPA Consulting Group companies. [Our colleagues and experts] with various technical backgrounds, different ages and gender mixed, combining numerous cultures, is the real asset of AFC and the GOPA Consulting Group”, says our CEO Johannes Buschmeier.

With around 60 employees in Bonn, 100 projects, 101 country offices and more than 1,200 experts and employees in 54 countries, AFC is constantly growing and has reached an annual turnover of over EUR 32m in 2022.

Together with around 150 of our experts, partners, clients, and colleagues, we toasted to our joint achievements and future impactful cooperation. After inspirational speeches by Claudia Ackermann, Prof Dr Matin Qaim, Olga Trofimtseva, Dave Boreham, Dr Martin Güldner and Johannes Buschmeier, we enjoyed the sun and each other’s company on the deck and danced until late in the night into the next 50 years of expertise and innovation to come.

Already one day before our anniversary celebration, our project team leaders and experts from 24 project countries came to Bonn for the Agricultural and Financial Experts' Day to exchange their experiences and insights in person with the entire AFC team and to discuss future topics of international cooperation.

"The regular expert days are important to continuously improve our work, to jointly find innovative approaches for successful project implementation and, last but not least, to spend time together as a team," explains Mr Buschmeier.

In addition to leadership training, topics such as the transformation of agricultural and food systems and trends and priorities in financial sector development were discussed alongside an inspirational leadership training. After a walk on the Rhine, we had a session about opportunities & challenges in AFC projects, and an open discussion on how to lead and manage projects better.

To conclude in the words of Mr Buschmeier: “Thank you for trusting, joining and helping us during the last 50 years and in the future!”

For more information on our project work, history and the company browse through our anniversary newsletter: https://issuu.com/afc-agriculture_finance/docs/afc_worldwide_2023_en