Acuagranjas Exp.

completed

IFC is considering investing up to US$10 million in Acuagranjas Dos Lagos (ADL or the “Company”), a five year old aquaculture company seeking to expand its tilapia fishery and fish processing operations in Chiapas, Mexico. The proposed project will include an expansion of ADL’s cage-based aquaculture production from Lake Penitas to Lake Malpaso, some 35 linear kilometers downstream. The Company indicated that it would install approximately 200 ha of cages onto 30,000 ha in Lake Malpaso and develop four hectares of land on the shore of Malpaso for associated logistics and landing operations. The Company intends to support expanded aquaculture production through improvements to its existing hatchery operations and fish processing plant in Amacohite, Chiapas, Mexico. Lake Malpaso was created by damming the Mezcalapa River (also known as the Grijalva or Tabasco River) which flows from the Chiapas highlands eastward through Tabasco draining into the Bay of Campeche. The Malpaso Dam was constructed in the 1960’s as the first of four major dams built on the Mezcalapa River to generate hydroelectric energy and has the second largest reservoir in Mexico. Tilapia was introduced to the new lake system in the early 1970’s where it has proven to be a hearty and efficient converter of residual agriculture products into high quality protein. ADL is the largest employer in northern Chiapas, a rural region characterized by low intensity agriculture, high levels of poverty, and few employment opportunities.