€4 million long term loan to BIMAL for regional market expansion

The EBRD is providing a €4 million loan to BIMAL, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s (BiH) sole edible oil producing company, to help the company expand its export volumes and to support farmers in the region by boosting purchases of their products.

Bimal is the only edible oil processor in BiH that has crushing, refining and bottling capacities. Located on the border between BiH and Croatia and close to the sunflower-rich regions of Serbia and Hungary, Bimal has a strong market position in the Western Balkans region, with 60 per cent of its sales revenue coming from exports.

The EBRD’s funding will be used to finance the procurement of raw materials, such as seasonal sunflower, rape, soybean seeds and crude oil from local producers in BiH. In addition, BIMAL will buy oilseeds from farmers in Serbia, Croatia and Hungary, supporting the development of the agricultural sector in BiH and neighbouring countries.

“This project is strengthening BIMAL’s relationship with local farmers and supports BiH’s potential to increase production of rape seed and sunflower seed. The EBRD is pleased to help BIMAL build on its competitive advantages, spurring further the competition in the agribusiness sector in Western Balkans”, said Gilles Mettetal, EBRD Director for Agribusiness.

Bimal’s CEO, Mr. Ilija Studen added: “BIMAL is constantly improving its production process in adherence to the global standards and we are ever so pleased by the fact that BIMAL’s development trajectory from the privatisation until today has been recognized by such a significant institution as EBRD, especially now when times are hard for the commercial sector in Bosnia-Herzegovina.”

Following company’s privatisation in 2003, BIMAL is currently owned by the Austrian joint venture company Seed Oil Holding. In 2008 the EBRD has provided to Bimal a similar €6 million working capital loan.

Since the beginning of its operations in BiH, the EBRD has invested more than €1 billion in 77 projects across all sectors of the country’s economy.

In the agribusiness sector, the EBRD has directly committed more than €5 billion in over 360 projects in countries of its operations.