Sucden II

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The proposed investment is an up to €250 million syndicated term loan (1-year maturity, renewable/re-committed annually, for up to 4 years in aggregate) by IFC to SUCDEN Cote d’Ivoire (“SUCDEN-CI” or the “Company”) and its parent company SUCDEN S.A (the “co-Borrower” and, jointly with SUCDEN-CI and other subsidiaries, “SUCDEN” or the “Group”) to finance the procurement and export of cocoa beans from Cote d’Ivoire (CDI).The facility will be renewable for 4 years, from October 2024 to September 2028. This investment will complement the existing 100M Euro syndicated loan, also for traceable cocoa from CDI, committed in October 2023 (details of which can be found here: https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/ESRS/47216/sucden-cdi) and renewable annually until September 2027. This Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) is an update of the ESRS disclosed on June 27, 2023, for project #47216, including details of the company’s actions taken in response to the Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) for that investment. The environmental and social performance of the company is judged to be satisfactory. Overall, the Group expects to source around 108,000 metric tons of cocoa beans from CDI during the 2024/2025 season, with a target of 83,000 metric tons to be sourced through SUCDEN-CI, which is traceable, and the majority of which is certified against voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) and/or similar E&S requirements from SUCDEN-CI’s customers. The remaining 25,000 metric tons will be sourced through other exporters. As for the previous investment, IFC financing will support only the procurement and export of 100 % traceable cocoa beans sourced directly by SUCDEN-CI. The supply chain monitoring and verification system in place will also cater to the additional sourcing. SUCDEN-CI does not own any farms, nor is expected to own any farm as part of this financing. The supply chain of SUCDEN-CI consists of both cooperatives and intermediaries; last season out of the total 70,000 metric tons sourced, 62,110 metric tons was sourced from 90 cooperatives. The beans are sourced from smallholder farmers who are either members of those co-operatives or who sell to the same intermediaries every year. Most cocoa bean harvesting is undertaken from October to March (80 percent of the annual harvest), while the rest of it is obtained in April to September. The company takes ownership of the beans at the gate of its two leased warehouses (one located in the port of Abidjan and one in the industrial area of San Pedro) after ensuring that the beans have passed the required quality checks. The beans are then subject to simple primary processing, which includes drying, packing, and fumigation as per phytosanitary requirements, prior to export. The processing is carried out by contracted service providers employed by the owners of the warehouses.  Transport of the beans from the farms and co-ops to the warehouses is organized and managed by the suppliers of the beans, while that from the warehouses to the ports (a very short distance) is organized and managed by SUCDEN-CI.