News Bites

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has provided a loan of up to US$150m to Olam to support our increasing engagement in Egypt, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland and Georgia.

Olam is already active in these countries and the EBRD loan will finance purchases of agricultural commodities such as hazelnuts in Turkey and Georgia, dry dairy products and grain in Ukraine, onions in Egypt and dry dairy products in Poland.

At a press conference hosted today at the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation in Egypt, Catarina Bjorlin Hansen, EBRD’s Deputy Head of Egypt, said “We are delighted to be supporting Olam’s operations in Egypt, and across other countries of operations of EBRD. This loan is a perfect example of how we can work with a strong partner such as Olam to improve competitiveness of locally produced food, help the Egyptian agricultural sector diversify into different crops, as well as support economic inclusion in the agricultural sector.”

Saurav Bhuwan, Vice President and Country Head for Olam Egypt, said “Olam Egypt remains bullish about the opportunities that Egypt offers in the agri-business sector. Over the past few years, we have established a strong business in vegetable-dehydration, and have expanded the value-chain to include onion farming in the new lands of Egypt. We have also pioneered the development of a non-GMO variety of onion seeds that use half the amount of water and energy for each tonne of output compared to growing conventional onions. This is one example of how Olam is re-imagining agriculture by putting sustainability at the heart of our business. The loan from EBRD will go towards growing our existing operations while also evaluating new opportunities both in the internal markets of Egypt as well as the export markets.”