The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending US$ 10 million to support Ukrainian agriculture through investment into the inland grain transport fleet of IMC Group, a medium-sized crop producer operating a 120,000-hectare land bank in Ukraine.
The EBRD finance, announced on the margins of the Ukraine Recovery Conference being held this week in London, is accompanied by US$ 3 million from the Clean Technology Fund to support the purchase of new low-emission grain trucks.
The project will increase IMC’s grain logistics efficiency and ensure the sustainability of the company’s export capacity. By increasing IMC’s resilience, the project will also help preserve its human capital and maintain the livelihoods of its employees.
Ukraine is a global agricultural producer and exporter, whose import and export routes by sea have been destabilised since last year by the impact of Russia’s war on the country.
The loan will be supported by a contribution from the Netherlands to the donor-funded EBRD Crisis Response Special Fund via partial guarantee within the EBRD’s resilience package in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine. The project’s legal due diligence is supported by the Japan-EBRD Cooperation Fund.
The EBRD has increased its investments in Ukraine since the Russian invasion of February 2022. It has committed to invest €3 billion there in 2022-23, of which €1.7 billion has already been deployed, along with a further €200 million mobilised from partner financial institutions.
