KYIV. March 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has provided a loan of $15 million to Agrofusion, the largest Ukrainian vertically integrated industrial tomato paste producer created by former co-founder of Sandora juice producers businessman Serhiy Sypko.
According to a posting on the Facebook page of EBRD Senior Advisor Anton Usov, the loan would help the company to partially finance construction of a third tomato plant in Ukraine with an annual production capacity of 34,000 tonnes of tomato paste.
Usov said that the launch of the new plant would help the company to better satisfy growing demand on organic food both in Ukraine and outside the country. The project envisages a $700,000 grant under the EBRD FINTECC program, which will allow introducing a new drop irrigation system and providing for annual saving of up to 1.2 million cubic meters of water. It can be used for more efficient application of fertilizers and reduction of emission in the amount of up to 3,700 tonnes a year. The plastic waste in the production cycle would be considerably cut.
As reported, earlier the EBRD assessed the total cost of the project at $50 million.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) on March 10, 2017 approved the financing of a production line for processing tomatoes in Ukraine. In May 2016 the International Finance Corporation (IFC) from the World Bank Group said it would provide $10 million to Agrofusion Group to boost its working capital.
Agrofusion Group was founded in 2007. Agrofusion Group in 2014 reached its maximum production of 52,778 tonnes of tomato paste, in 2015 it expanded its capabilities through investment, reaching a figure of 61,500 tonnes.
The company’s operational assets include two tomato paste plants with total processing capacity of approximately 500,000 tonnes of tomatoes per season; two seedling green-houses; and 20,000 hectares of irrigated leased land in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions as well as modern farming equipment.
