A loan helped provide fish farmers with the food needed to raise their fish, increasing production and incomes.


Acceso El Salvador's story

This loan may have higher risk but higher impact. Learn more here.

The Problem
Despite an extensive coastline, El Salvador’s fishing industry is severely underdeveloped. El Salvador is a net importer of frozen fish and locals are not linked to high-value markets. Tilapia represents ~92% of aquaculture production in El Salvador, however the industry's growth has not occurred in an orderly manner. The fish value chain is extremely fragmented with uncertain food safety handling practices and inflated prices where the fisher earns less than 25% of the final product value.

The Solution
Acceso trains low-income fishers, like Gloria and Ludwin pictured above, and farmers to adopt sustainable fishing and agriculture practices, provides inputs including fertilizer and fish feed, and introduces new innovations. Acceso purchases fish at fair prices, handles processing and logistics, and sells to quality buyers. Producers benefit from improved production, higher incomes and sustainable access to high value markets. Acceso has impacted the lives of more than 800 smallholder producers to date. A video on their work is here

The Impact
To meet the growing local tilapia demand of El Salvador’s largest supermarket, Acceso needs to expand its program to work with a greater network of local fishers. Acceso will use the Kiva loan to support a fish food input program so that fishers can increase their production, improve their fishing practices, and, in turn, increase their incomes.


This loan is special because:

it helps increase the household income for small scale fishers in El Salvador



Loan details


Lenders and lending teams




Loan details