Puratos Loan (IFC-41992)

Countries
  • Ivory Coast
  • Mexico
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Uganda
  • Vietnam
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Proposed
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
A
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Aug 24, 2020
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
PURATOS GROUP NV
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Agriculture and Forestry
  • Industry and Trade
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 112.39 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Currency conversion note:
Bank reported EUR 100 million
Converted using 2020-06-26 exchange rate.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Apr 26, 2021

Disclosed by Bank Jun 23, 2020

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

The proposed investment consists in a corporate facility of up to EUR 100 million to Puratos Group N.V. (“Puratos” or the “Company”) to finance the sustainable procurement of wet-dry cocoa beans under its Cacao-Trace program (Puratos’ proprietary sustainable sourcing program) in origins in Central and South America, Africa and Asia for the period of 2020-2025 and CAPEX for the construction of cocoa post-harvest centers and grinding lines, where and when necessary. Puratos is an international group dedicated to developing, producing and delivering innovative ingredients and semi-finished products for artisans, industry, retailers and food service customers in the bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors. Headquarter in Belgium Puratos has local subsidiaries in 78 countries; products are manufactured in more than 63 plants spread over 46 countries and sold in over 100 countries.

People Affected By This Project
People Affected By This Project refers to the communities of people likely to be affected positively or negatively by a project.

The project impacts will be centered on smallholder farmers supplying Puratos (Belcolade) under its sustainable cocoa sourcing program Cacao-Trace. Cocoa farmers will benefit from a reliable access to the market and increased income (including quality premiums and bonuses), through the implementation of a more sustainable and environmentally beneficial harvesting model leading to improved yields and the production of premium quality cocoa. The project is expected to generate more extensive market impacts by influencing the way similar companies addresses cocoa sustainability issues.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Puratos NV/SA 
Jean-Philippe Michaux 
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Group Director of Finance, ICT and Legal Affairs 
+32 2 481 48 88 
jmichaux@puratos.com 
Industrialan 25, Zone Maalbeek B-1702 Groot-Bijgaarden, Belgium 
www.puratos.com 

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org. You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/

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How it works