Frigorifico Copiapo

repaid

The project consists of the construction of a cold-storage facility in the Copiapó area in Chile’s Region III. The facility will have the capacity to store 800,000 crates of table grapes. Frigorífico La Cantera Copiapó S.A. (hereafter, "Copiapó") was established for this purpose. Its majority shareholder is Exportadora Subsole S.A. (hereafter, "Subsole").Copiapó has requested a US$1.000.000 loan from the IIC to finance the construction of the project. With this long-term loan in U.S. dollars, the IIC is contributing to the development of the fruit exporting sector, a key sector of Chile’s economy. The farming sector accounts for 4.2% of the GDP of Region III, Atacama, where the project will be located. Agriculture accounts for 12.7% of the region’s jobs; in 2007 there were nearly 13,000 agricultural workers.There is a serious deficit of fruit processing services in the Copiapó area, which produces the first grapes of the season that are also Chile’s highest priced export grapes. The cold-storage facility will ensure adequate cold storage services for crates of grapes to be exported by Subsole, thus helping ensure Subsole’s profitability.