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Uzbek raisin processor gets harvest loan
Seasonal funding helps export dried fruit to western Europe and CIS
An Uzbek firm which processes and packs dried fruit and vegetables for export
to Russia, Ukraine and western Europe has received the first loan from the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development under a programme devised to
finance agricultural projects in the Bank’s countries of operations.
The EBRD is lending Berad-Agro up to $630,000 to enable it to buy stocks of
onions, potatoes, tomatoes and dried grapes from local farmers at harvest
time. This will help the firm export Uzbek raisins and dried vegetables to
markets in Germany, the Netherlands, Russia and Ukraine.
The loan is being made as part of the “Early Transition Countries” (ETC)
initiative launched by the EBRD this year to stimulate market activity in
Central Asia, the Caucasus and Moldova by using a streamlined approach to
financing more and smaller projects.
Laurent Guye, Executive Director representing Switzerland, Uzbekistan and six
other countries on the EBRD Board, said at the signing ceremony in Samarkand
that Berad-Agro is the first direct beneficiary of the programme to provide
small seasonal working-capital loans that will enable development of
agribusinesses and directly support farmers. Mr Guye also noted that the
project represents the first investment by the Bank in Uzbekistan’s
fruit-processing industry – a key source of export revenue for the local
economy and also an important alternative to cotton farming.
Hans Christian Jacobsen, Director of the EBRD’s Agribusiness Team, added that
the Bank is happy to show that it can work with the emerging local
agribusiness companies in Uzbekistan, even if the amounts are small.
Berad-Agro was set up in 1995 with five staff members and has since grown to
become the leading firm in processing fruit and vegetables in Uzbekistan,
employing about 500. In 2003 it benefited from consulting services organised
by the EBRD to install a new management system. These services were provided
under the EBRD-run Business Advisory Services (BAS) programme with $21,500
contributed by the Japan-European Cooperation Fund.
The Bank has now signed 214 projects in the agribusiness sector across all its
countries of operations for a total of €3.3 billion of EBRD financing.
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