Seasonal trade packs a year's funding need into a few months, so the facility has to peak with the harvest
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Crop and export calendars set when cash goes out and when it comes back. Pre-export, warehouse and yearly renewed facilities are built to match that curve.
Terms like this have a quick explainer. Tap or hover on them.
01 · The calendar
Harvest calendars set when cash goes out and when it comes back
Farm goods are harvested in a season, and exports follow the harvest. So a crop trader's cash moves in a wave, not a straight line.
Soybeans show the pattern clearly. "Historically, U.S. soybean exports peak between September and December," the USDA Economic Research Service said in November 2015. The same chart notes that Brazil's export season peaks between March and June.
A later ERS chart from September 2019 describes the US pattern across the , the 12 months over which a crop's sales are counted. Exports peak in late fall and winter. Then they fall to lower levels in spring and summer.
The sums are large. US agricultural exports totaled $171 billion in 2025, per the USDA Economic Research Service.
Figure 1 · Interactive
Two soybean seasons, six months apart
Tap United States or Brazil to see the peak export months and the source.
02 · The peak
The funding need peaks between crop purchase and buyer payment
An exporter pays for the crop first. Its buyers pay later. The cash tied up in between is its need. In a seasonal trade, that need climbs fast and falls fast.
Here is a simple worked example. All amounts are for illustration. An exporter spends $100,000 in August on early costs. It then buys $8,500,000 of crop from September to December. Buyers start paying in October.
The exporter covers the gap with a facility, an agreed line of finance it can draw on and repay. At each month end, the draw is $2,100,000 in September, $4,600,000 in October and $5,600,000 in November. November is the peak. In December, buyer payments of $2,500,000 overtake crop purchases of $1,000,000. The draw falls to $4,100,000.
At an illustrative rate of 6.00% a year, interest for the whole year comes to $95,000.00. The facility is fully repaid by March. Small running costs bring a small draw back from June.
The example counts 30-day months on a 360-day year. That is the day count, the standard US money market convention per the Alternative Reference Rates Committee and the Federal Reserve's H.15 release.
Figure 2 · Try it
Where your seasonal funding need peaks
Set the harvest month, the crop purchase value and how long buyers take to pay. The bars show the month-end draw and the dark cell the peak.
Harvest starts in
Extra months before buyers pay
Month-end draw on the facility
Peak draw
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Peak month
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Interest for the year
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How it works: the month-end need equals all purchases and costs so far minus all buyer payments so far. The draw equals the need when it is above zero. Monthly interest equals the draw times the annual rate times 30, divided by 360. Crop purchases and buyer payments scale with the slider; the other monthly costs of $100,000 to $200,000 stay fixed.
Our Research Desk used month-end balances and simple interest: draw x annual rate x 30 / 360. The rate is for illustration and is not Ossiano pricing.
This calculator explains the concept only. Real seasons shift with weather, prices and shipping, and facilities carry advance rates and fees.
Move the harvest month and the whole curve moves with it. Add months before buyers pay and the peak gets higher and lasts longer. Interest for the year rises with it.
03 · The instruments
Pre-export, warehouse and yearly renewed facilities match the draw to the crop
Several kinds of trade finance are built for this curve. Each one pays out before the crop is sold and is repaid when it is.
pays a seller to buy, grow or process goods before they ship. Its maturity, the date it must be repaid, is often tied to the date the buyer will pay, the Global Supply Chain Finance Forum (GSCFF) says. Variations include finance against and . Our guide to pre-shipment vs post-shipment finance compares the two stages.
is a close relative. The exporter is paid ahead for goods it is going to export, and repays from the export proceeds. See our guide to pre-export finance.
Storage gives producers a choice of when to sell. provides loans secured by crops held in a warehouse. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) says it lets producers manage the timing of crop sales. The warehouse issues a for the stored crop, and that receipt backs the loan.
Under its Global Warehouse Finance Program, IFC shares up to 50 percent of short-term loans to agricultural producers or traders made against warehouse receipts or equivalent. This is one form of , covered in our guide to inventory finance.
Some facilities follow the crop year itself. IFC disclosed the SUCDEN II loan in its project disclosure of July 31, 2024. It is a EUR 250 million syndicated term loan, meaning several lenders share it. It funds SUCDEN Cote d'Ivoire and SUCDEN S.A. to buy and export cocoa beans. IFC put in EUR 120 million itself and brought in EUR 130 million from other lenders.
The loan has a 1-year maturity, renewable each year for up to 4 years. So its , the time until repayment, is one season. Our guide to structured commodity finance covers larger structures of this kind.
04 · Terms and cover
Agricultural sales can carry longer insured payment terms
After shipment, the exporter often waits for the buyer to pay. protects the exporter if the buyer does not pay. Farm goods get longer cover than most.
EXIM, the US , sets out its terms in its Export Finance Solutions Guide (March 2026). Its is a one-year renewable policy. It generally covers up to 180-day terms at 95 percent. For agricultural products, it covers 98 percent and up to 360-day terms.
The US International Trade Administration gives a similar split. Short-term cover typically runs up to 180 days for consumer goods, materials and services. It runs up to 360 days for small capital goods, consumer durables and bulk commodities.
Longer insured terms let an exporter give buyers more time and keep the risk covered. Before shipment, pays for the goods. After shipment, insurance protects the payment. Our guides to trade credit insurance and tenor go further.
05 · The system view
Seasonal swings are recognized at the central bank's own window
Even the Federal Reserve plans for the seasons. Its program "assists small depository institutions in managing significant seasonal swings," the Federal Reserve Board says. Depository institutions are banks and credit unions that take deposits. Eligible institutions usually sit in farming or tourist areas.
The Federal Reserve Discount Window page, updated December 1, 2025, adds the detail. Eligible institutions may get term funding for up to nine months. Their deposits must be under $500 million. The seasonal businesses it names include construction, college, farming, resort and municipal financing.
The program serves banks and credit unions only. It shows that funding which rises and falls with the seasons is a normal, planned part of finance.
06 · Ossiano view
The best seasonal structures move with the crop
OBSERVATION 01
Two hemispheres, two peaks
US soybean exports peak September to December, while Brazil's peak March to June, per the USDA ERS. A trade flow that draws on both origins spreads its funding need across the year.
OBSERVATION 02
Yearly renewal fits the crop year
SUCDEN II pairs a 1-year maturity with yearly renewal for up to 4 years, per IFC. Each season's draw is repaid from that season's exports, while the relationship runs for several.
Summary
Seasonal finance works best when the facility rises and falls with the crop
Harvests set the calendar. US soybean exports have historically peaked from September to December, and Brazil's from March to June. An exporter's funding need climbs while it buys the crop and falls as buyers pay. In our illustrative example, the draw peaks at $5,600,000 in November and costs $95,000.00 in interest over the year at 6.00%.
Pre-shipment and pre-export finance pay for the crop before it ships. Warehouse financing lets producers time their sales. Yearly renewed loans such as SUCDEN II match one season at a time. Export credit insurance can cover agricultural sales on terms of up to 360 days.
Related guides: Working capital and trade finance; Structured commodity finance; Financing agricultural commodity trade; Pre-export finance; Pre-shipment vs post-shipment finance; Inventory finance.
Instrument cards: Pre-export finance; Prepayment finance; Warehouse finance (warehouse receipts); Red clause letter of credit; Inventory finance; Revolving letter of credit. Every term on this page is defined in the Trade Finance Glossary.
For questions on how seasonal finance applies to existing or planned trade flows, contact the Ossiano Research Desk.
Sources
- USDA Economic Research Service, U.S. soybean exports have decreased (Charts of Note), November 20, 2015. Supports: US soybean exports historically peak between September and December; Brazil's export season peaks between March and June.
- USDA Economic Research Service, U.S. soybean exports in the 2018/19 crop year deviate from past seasonal patterns (Charts of Note), September 30, 2019. Supports: US soybean exports peak in late fall and winter, then fall to lower levels in spring and summer.
- USDA Economic Research Service, Top US agricultural trading partners (chart gallery item 58374), June 30, 2026. Supports: US agricultural exports of $171 billion in 2025.
- Global Supply Chain Finance Forum (ICC, BAFT, EBA, FCI, ITFA), Standard Definitions: Pre-shipment Finance, 2016. Supports: maturity often tied to the date the buyer will pay; variations include red and green clause letters of credit.
- International Finance Corporation, Global Warehouse Finance Program (GWFP), undated. Supports: warehouse financing gives loans secured by commodities in warehouses and lets producers manage the timing of crop sales; IFC shares up to 50 percent of short-term loans against warehouse receipts or equivalent.
- International Finance Corporation, IFC project disclosure: SUCRES ET DENREES (SUCDEN II), project 50076, July 31, 2024. Supports: EUR 250 million syndicated term loan for the purchase and export of cocoa beans (EUR 120 million IFC own account, EUR 130 million mobilized); 1-year maturity renewable annually for up to 4 years.
- UNCITRAL, UNCITRAL - UNIDROIT Model Law on Warehouse Receipts (2024), 2024. Supports: adoption by UNCITRAL on June 26, 2024.
- Export-Import Bank of the United States, EXIM Export Finance Solutions Guide (PDF), March 20, 2026. Supports: one-year renewable short-term policy covering up to 180-day terms at 95 percent; agricultural products 98 percent and up to 360-day terms.
- US International Trade Administration, Export Credit Insurance, undated. Supports: short-term cover up to 180 days for consumer goods, materials and services, and up to 360 days for small capital goods, consumer durables and bulk commodities.
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Lending to depository institutions, May 13, 2021. Supports: seasonal credit assists small depository institutions with significant seasonal swings; eligible institutions usually in agricultural or tourist areas.
- Federal Reserve Discount Window, Seasonal Credit Program, December 1, 2025. Supports: term funding up to nine months; deposits under $500 million; seasonal businesses including construction, college, farming, resort and municipal financing.
- Alternative Reference Rates Committee, SOFR "In Arrears" Conventions for Syndicated Business Loans, July 22, 2020. Supports: Actual/360 as the standard US money market day count, used in Figure 2.
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Selected Interest Rates (Daily), H.15, September 29, 2026. Supports: money market rates annualized on a 360-day year, used in Figure 2.
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