Nafoods Group

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   The proposed investment consists of a loan of up to US$10 million with 50% convertible into Nafoods Group Joint Stock Company (“Nafoods” or the “Group”) common shares. Established in 1995 Nafoods is a Vietnamese group dedicated to fruit production and processing through facilities spread across the country with a combined area of 120 hectares: one head office in Vinh City; two fruit processing factories in Long An province: Nafoods Southern Joint Stock Group (NFS), with an Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) capacity of 5,000 tons and passion fruit concentrate capacity of 7,000 tons per annum, and Naprod Nghe An factory, with an IQF capacity of 2,900 tons and concentrate capacity of 5,000 tons per annum; the Chanh Leo Nafoods (CLN) nursery, farm, and passion fruit research center in Nghe An Province capable of producing four million seedings per annum. The company employs 350 workers and maintains a supply chain that includes nine aggregation companies (traders), 300 small holder contracted farmers (under pilot contracted out grower schemes), and two primary suppliers. Fresh fruit sourcing for Nafoods extends 400 km from its subsidiaries with transport contracted out to third party suppliers. Nafoods group utilizes over 30 different fruits and vegetables in processing varying with seasonality of harvest, including Banana, Kumquat, Pineapple, Mango, Ginger, Coconut, Dragon Fruit, Pomelo, Lime and Lychee. 70% of IQF is Banana with 15% Coconut and 15% Ginger. Nafoods exports its final products to over 60 countries and is Vietnam’s largest passion fruit concentrate exporter to the European Union. The group is aspiring to become the world’s largest passion fruit concentrate and fresh passion fruit exporter. The use of proceeds from IFC loan will be used as follows: expansion of NFS Long An facility production lines, acquisition of 10.2 hectares of land in Gia Lai Province for a dedicated passion fruit packing house and concentrate processing; and permanent working capital. The production process for fruit concentrate requires: cleaning, skinning and deseeding, pasteurization at 44oC (for passion fruit), centrifuge, evaporator of excess liquid, with the puree placed in to 40-gallon containers for shipment. IQF process requires: cleaning, skinning preparation (cut to size), pre-cooling, evaporative freezing (-40oC), packaging, and cold storage for shipment.