The EBRD is providing an €11 million loan to Ukrproduct Group LTD, one of the leading producers and distributors of dairy products in Ukraine listed on London Stock Exchange. The loan will finance energy efficiency and environmental upgrades at Ukrproduct’s plant - Starokonstantinovskiy Molochniy Zavod.
The modernisation of production facilities at Starokonstantinovskiy Molochniy Zavod will significantly reduce the use of energy and increase the overall production efficiency and improve the plant’s environmental performance. When fully implemented, the project is expected to lead to significant, over twenty per cent, energy savings, specific water consumption decrease by forty percent and Green House Gas emission savings estimated at almost 9,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year. This is particularly relevant in the domestic dairy sector, where awareness of effective energy and natural resources management is relatively low.
The loan to Ukrproduct is the first sub-project under the Agribusiness Sustainable Investment Facility recently launched by the EBRD. The facility aims to improve energy efficiency, environmental and social performance of companies working in agribusiness in the Bank’s countries of operation.
The project will enhance competition in the dairy sector of Ukraine and support the introduction of best practice through technical innovations and the introduction of advanced energy management measures.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the largest financial investor in Ukraine. As of 31 December 2010, the Bank had committed over €6 billion ($8.3 billion) through 264 projects. Moreover, in the agribusiness sector alone the EBRD has directly committed over €6 billion in over 420 projects across Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States since 1991.
