VACPA

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VACPA Boudjebel Company - Founded in 1983 by Mr. Mohsen Boujbel (the “Sponsor”), VACPA is a date collector with access to a network of storage and packaging facilities in the south west of Tunisia; they also own a central processing unit close to Tunis. The Company processes dates, organic and pitted. In 2018/2019, it processed 13,500 tons and started to produce date by-products (date paste, powder dates). VACPA relies on a total network of ~1,000 farmers for its date supply in the south west of Tunisia. It deals directly with 532 of these (who provided 8,500 tons of dates in 2018), to which it provides technical assistance to ensure product quality. The proposed investment consists of a €10 million A-Loan (equivalent to $11m) to be committed in two tranches to finance the working capital and expansion plan of the Company. IFC’s first tranche will finance much needed working capital to support the Company’s operations during the COVID-19 crisis and the second tranche will be used to: (i) establish a production unit for date juice concentrate; (ii) upgrade its existing processing unit; and (iii) upgrade supply chain improvement program (PASA), (the “Project)VACPA does not grow any of the dates that it processes; direct E&S risks and impacts are therefore associated with the collection and limited processing of the dates. The Company plans to increase such production from 13,000 tons (of which 40% is organic) to 20,000 tons per annum (p.a.) and develop a concentrate line (to be housed in an existing, company-owned building near to the existing processing plant). E&S risks and impacts of this line will be nominal and similar to those found in the existing processing operation. Dates are grown in desert environments in areas with intense pressure upon water resources. Such water resources are currently not universally well-managed/regulated; however, VACPA does have some limited influence over which farming practices are utilized in growing dates (e.g., traditional – and inefficient – flood irrigation versus more targeted and efficient micro-spray irrigation, etc.) and they may be able to use their commercial leverage to apply pressure to encourage more farmers to use more efficient methods (and thereby increase the percentage of the purchase of dates grown under such conditions). VACPA deals directly with 532 famers to source dates; the rest of the supply is procured from the open market. Currently, 20% of VACPA’s directly sourced supply chain is from farmers using more efficient irrigation techniques.