The International Financial Company (IFC), which is the member of World Bank Group, provided financing, totaling $42.5 mln, to Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, and Niva Pereyaslavshchyny, the pork producer, according to the press release of the financial corporation, HB reports.

Thus, Astarta will receive the loan, amounting to $30 mln, Niva Pereyaslavshchyny - $12.5 mln.

“IFC funding is provided to support 2-year investment program of the company, aimed at raising efficiency and competitiveness through modernization of sugar plants. It will help the company (Astarta) to reduce gas, electricity and water consumption”, the message says.

In addition, the program is intended to increase Astarta’s volumes of cultivation and trade of grain and oilseed crops, because within its framework, a new agricultural equipment will be procured and new facilities for storing grown products will be built.

Astarta Agropromholding is the largest sugar producer in Ukraine with a 25% share of production, the land bank of which is 245 ths ha. The company also deals with milk production and soybean processing.

The company operates in Poltava, Vinnitsa, Khmelnitsky, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Kharkiv regions.

The businessperson Victor Ivanchyk and the international financial group Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, are the major shareholders of Astarta;the shares of the company are traded at Warsaw Stock Exchange.

“The agricultural business is the priority field for IFC all over world, and Ukraine is very important for our strategy in the sector”, Chief Operating Officer of IFC Stephanie von Friedeburg noted.

In addition, the long-term funding of Niva Pereyaslavshchyny will help implementing the investment program of the company, which provides for the construction of a new meat-processing complex, which will comply with EU food safety standards.

Niva Pereyaslavshchyny is the joint Ukrainian-British company, which has been dealing with pig breeding since 2006. The production capacities of the company are about 200 ths commercial pigs per year. The company owns the feed milling plant, slaughterhouse and meat packing plant, which manufactures products under the trademark “Pyatachok”.