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Kiev, Ukraine, November 12, 2012
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is providing up to $40 million in debt financing to Ukraine’s leading agricultural producer, Astarta, to help the company expand and diversify, which will contribute to global food security and create thousands of new jobs in Ukraine.
IFC’s investment will support Astarta in its plans to increase production capacity of grains and oil seeds, diversify its operations through the construction of a soybean-crushing facility, and continue improving efficiency in sugar production. Employing about 14,000 people in small towns and villages in central Ukraine, Astarta plans to add 3,400 new jobs in rural areas in the next four years.
“Our long-term strategy is focused on increasing production efficiency, energy savings, and business diversification,” said Viktor Ivanchyk, Astarta’s CEO.
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We are aiming for sustainable growth, and
IFC’s financing and expertise will help us continue to improve our performance and learn from the world’s best practices in agriculture.”
Rufat Alimardanov, IFC Country Manager for Ukraine and Belarus, said, “Astarta is at the forefront of Ukrainian agribusiness in many areas, including transparency and production efficiency. IFC helps Ukraine improve agribusiness efficiency to enable the country to increase exports of key agricultural commodities and contribute to global food security.”
Ukraine accounts for about 10 percent of global grain exports, and Astarta supplies grain to Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. About a third of IFC’s current portfolio in Ukraine is invested in the agribusiness sector.
IFC supports the entire value chain in agribusiness, from farm production to collection, processing, and distribution. IFC also offers advisory programs in Ukraine on simplifying business regulations for agribusiness, expanding access to finance for farmers, encouraging commercial bank lending to the sector, and developing the agri-insurance market. IFC also works to enhance the competitiveness of local players by supporting improvement in food safety management and resource efficiency.
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, mobilizing capital in international financial markets, and providing advisory services to businesses and governments. In FY12, our investments reached an all-time high of more than $20 billion, leveraging the power of the private sector to create jobs, spark innovation, and tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
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About Astarta
Founded in 1993, Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding specializing in sugar and agricultural production. The agricultural business focuses primarily on the cultivation of sugar beet, grains and oilseeds, the production of high quality white sugar and related products, and milk and meat production. For more information, visit
http://astartakiev.com/en/about/
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