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Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, July 3, 2012
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, will set up a risk-sharing facility with Bank South Pacific to enable the bank to provide 10 million Papua New Guinean kina (or $5 million) in loans to Kongo Coffee Limited, the largest locally owned coffee exporter in Papua New Guinea. The financing will help the company buy more coffee from farmers, meet market demand, and create more jobs.
“IFC’s guarantee means Bank South Pacific will now be able lend us the money we need to triple our coffee processing capacity to six tons per hour from two tons,” said Jerry Kapka, Kongo Coffee’s Managing Director. “This improvement will allow us to purchase more coffee beans from local farmers, satisfy our customers’ demands, and increase our coffee exports.”
The company largely buys its coffee from remote communities in Simbu province, where more than 100,000 people rely on the coffee industry for jobs and income. Most of its suppliers are small growers who own less than two and a half hectares of land.
In addition, IFC will provide advice to Kongo Coffee to improve its corporate governance, internal systems, and management skills.
“By helping Kongo increase its exports and sustainability, we are giving small-scale coffee farmers an assured buyer who will want more of their product,” said Carolyn Blacklock, IFC’s Resident Representative in Papua New Guinea. “More demand means younger farmers have a future and are given the opportunity to expand their businesses, increase profits, and create jobs.”
A key priority for IFC in the Papua New Guinea is to provide investment and advisory services to financial institutions to better serve micro, small, and medium enterprises and expand access to finance in rural areas to improve living standards and create economic opportunities.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, providing advisory services to businesses and governments, and mobilizing capital in the international financial markets. In fiscal 2011, amid economic uncertainty across the globe, we helped our clients create jobs, strengthen environmental performance, and contribute to their local communities—all while driving our investments to an all-time high of nearly $19 billion. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
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