Uzbekistan – Milk Euro Food, one of the largest producers and distributors of butter, spreads, and margarine in Central Asia, has secured an organized financial package of US$ 6.3 million that will enable the company to improve its environmental and social standards.
The funding is from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), but up to US$ 750,000 of the loan amount will be provided by Taipei China via its aid agency, TaiwanICDF.
EBRD funding was sourced from the bank’s Small Business Impact Fund, with contributions from Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taipei China, the United States of America, and the Japan-EBRD Cooperation Fund.
EBRD’s Finance and Technology Transfer Centre for Climate Change (FINTECC) program, which is designed to transfer technology in the area of climate change mitigation and adaptation and is financed by the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund also supported the project.
A FINTECC grant of US$39,000 will finance the acquisition of 300 refrigerators that use an isobutene R-600a refrigerant with a low global warming potential.
The new refrigerators are expected to help the company reduce energy consumption and cut its annual CO2 emissions by 92 tonnes.
Milk Euro Food, located north of the country’s capital, Tashkent, has been providing top-quality agricultural products to the people of Central Asia’s most populous country since 2004.
It intends to become the benchmark for the domestic and regional Agri-processing industry.
To date, the EBRD has invested more than €3.2 billion in 110 projects across Uzbekistan after the Uzbekistan authorities took a new approach that allowed the EBRD to re-engage in the country, open a new Resident Office in Tashkent.
The new approach was a major reform program launched by the Uzbekistan authorities in February 2017 moving toward a more open, integrated market economic model, improving international relations, strengthening the rule of law and judicial independence, and achieving the liberalization of the foreign exchange rate
The program also helped the financial institution prepare a new Country Strategy which was adopted by the Board of Directors in September 2018 that has led to making investments in the country’s MSMEs.
The investment follows another funding EBRD made this year to SIS Natural a market leader in Armenia, specializing in the production of quality juices and fruit and vegetable preserves, to strengthen its productivity, revamp its branding and product packaging and develop a new B2B website and portal.
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