OREANDA-NEWS. June 10, 2010. The EBRD is providing USD350,000 loan to ATO, one of the largest producers of edible oil in Tajikistan, to help the company improve its market position and diversify its product range, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

ATO is a private locally-owned edible oil producer operating in south of Tajikistan, distributing its produce in and around Dushanbe and smaller towns in the region, through rented trucks.

The proceeds of the EBRD loan will finance ATO’s investment programme, helping the company to establish a new packaging unit at the factory, to improve its technological processes as well as to complete the renovation of the industrial and administration buildings at a recently purchased site.

In addition, the funds will be used to purchase eight trucks and a small warehouse in the Dushanbe food wholesale market, which will enable ATO to improve and expand its distribution network.

With total cost of over USD 1.7 million, the project will be co-financed by ATO’s own resources as well as a parallel loan to be provided by the local Eskhata Bank. The transaction is the first co-financing package provided by the EBRD in partnership with a local bank in Tajikistan.

“The project will enable ATO to start bottling its production and sell it under its brand name, boosting the competition in the edible oil sector in Tajikistan. We’re delighted to co-finance ATO’s investment programme alongside Eskhata Bank. This is a first partnership of this kind between the EBRD and a local Bank in Tajikistan”, said Ulf Hindstrom, Head of EBRD Office in Tajikistan.

To date the EBRD has committed close to USD 200 million to the Tajik economy in various projects in the corporate, financial, energy and infrastructure sectors.

In the agribusiness sector alone, the EBRD has directly committed more than EUR5.5 billion in over 380 projects across central and eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States since 1991.