The FINANCIAL — IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is investing up to $25 million in Nyva Pereyaslavshchyny, one of the leading Ukrainian pork producers, to support its expansion plans, helping create jobs, reduce imports, and boost sustainable agriculture.
IFC is providing Nyva with long-term debt financing to support a three-year investment program that includes the construction of pig farms and expanded storage and meat processing. This will help the company tap into Ukraine’s growing – and under-supplied – pork market and create jobs in rural areas in central Ukraine amid challenging economic conditions, according to IFC.
“IFC’s long-term financing will help us stabilize our funding sources at a time when even short-term lending from Ukrainian banks is scarce,” said Oleksander Mostipan, Chairman of Nyva’s group of companies. “This partnership will also help us further improve operational efficiencies and increase production to address the domestic pork shortage.”
Nyva is expected to nearly double its pork output to over 40,000 tons in the next four years. Despite a steady increase in pork production, Ukraine still imports up to a quarter of its annual consumption
“Agribusiness is a priority for IFC globally and Ukraine is central to IFC’s strategy in this sector,” said Dimitris Tsitsiragos, IFC Vice President for Global Client Services. “Unleashing the potential of Ukraine’s agribusiness sector will increase exports, boost the economy, and enable Ukraine to play a more significant role in global food security. IFC is today one of the leading foreign investors in Ukraine’s agribusiness, committing about $1 billion across the value chain.”
IFC also provides strategic advice in agribusiness. The advisory teams work both with the government and private sector in Ukraine to help streamline the business regulations in the sector, expand access to finance for farmers, open new markets and modernize supply chains and improve competitiveness through better standards and resource efficiency.