Omarsa Farm

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Operadora y Procesadora de Productos Marinos (“Omarsa” or “the Company”) is a fully integrated hatcher, processor, and exporter of shrimp located in Ecuador. Established in 1977, Omarsa is currently Ecuador’s second largest shrimp exporter. The company owns three hatcheries, three shrimp farms totaling 3,749 productive hectares (ha) in the Gulf of Guayaquil, and two processing plants (Abel Gilbert and Las Brisas) with a capacity of 160,000 tons per year located in Duran, an outskirt of Guayaquil. Shrimp farms are located in Chupadores Grande Island (Cachugran) (1,261 ha), Puna Island (1,564 ha), and the sector of Chongon (923 ha). In 2022, two new farms were acquired in Naranjal (Puerto Inca I 224.94 ha and Puerto Inca II – 327.47 ha). Omarsa is certified to multiple internationally recognized sustainability and food safety standards, including Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), British Retail Consortium (BRC), Naturland Organic and Global GAP. The company purchases up to 70 percent of its process throughput in the spot market from 593 pre-approved third-party shrimp farmers. IFC’s first investment in 2015 supported the expansion of the production and processing capacity, including 500 ha of new ponds in its Puna shrimp farm (https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/ESRS/36819/omarsa-ecuador). A second investment was approved in 2017 for the construction of the second processing/packing facility (Las Brisas) (https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/ESRS/39856/omarsa-ii). A third investment was approved in 2021 to support the  capex plan for 2021-22, which included (i) expanding the brine freezing and cold storage capacity in Las Brisas; (ii) upgrading water pumping systems in all three (3) shrimp farms; (iii) technification of its farms by investing in solar-powered automatic feeders equipped with hydrophones; and (iv) improving existing quality control laboratories (https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/ESRS/44456/rse-covid-omarsa). Omarsa’s environmental and social (E&S) performance in the previous three investments has been generally satisfactory. This fourth proposed transaction entails a loan of up to US$[20] million to complete the expansion of 536 ha of new shrimp ponds in Puna.