Astarta FMO loan

completed

IFC will provide corporate financing to Astarta (“Astarta,” or the “company”) in the form of an up to US$25 million working capital loan, including A and B loans, which will allow the Company to procure farming inputs before harvest and purchase crops from local farmers at the time of harvest for further processing or export. No expansion of existing facilities or launch of new business will be conducted by the company as a part of this project. Astarta is one of the leading primary agriculture producers and commodity processors in Ukraine. They are the largest Ukrainian producer of sugar and milk, with a total output of 355,000 tons of sugar, 103,000 tons of milk, 190,000 tons of soybean products and 790,000 tons of grains and oilseeds in 2015. Key Astarta’s operations are as follows: Crop production: Astarta currently has 245,000 ha under management. Astarta has a diversified crop portfolio with the main crops grown by the company in 2015 being soy (26%), corn (18%), sugar beet (14%), wheat (18%), sunflower (10%).Sugar production: the company currently operates nine sugar plants with about 43,000 tons per day (tpd) processing capacity for sugar beets. It sells sugar to retail chains, beverage, confectionary and other food sector companies, and to traders. Approximately 80% is sold to large industrial customers. Soybean Processing: in December 2013, Astarta commissioned a soybean processing plant and biogas production unit in Globino. In 2015 the plant processed 197,000 tons of soybeans into 150,000 tons of meal, 35,000 tons of oil and 5,000 tons of granulated husks. The biogas plant produced 10.5 million cubic meters of biogas in 2015. Dairy: Astarta is one of the biggest producers of milk in Ukraine, producing 10,000 tons of milk in 2015. Its cattle and milking cow headcount was 31,000 and 15,600, respectively.