Omarsa Farm (IFC-47244)

Regions
  • Latin America and Caribbean
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • Ecuador
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Specific Location
Puna
Whenever identified, the area within countries where the impacts of the investment may be experienced. Exact locations of projects may not be identified fully or at all in project documents. Please review updated project documents and community-led assessments.
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
B
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
Oct 26, 2023
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
Operadora y Procesadora de Productos Marinos Omarsa S.A.
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Agriculture and Forestry
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 20.00 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.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 20.00 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.
Bank Documents
Other Related Projects
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Jan 9, 2025

Disclosed by Bank Sep 26, 2023

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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.

As stated by the IFC, the proposed investment will support the development of 536 hectares of state-of-the-art farms in their Puna location.

IFC’s first investment in 2015 supported the expansion of the production and processing capacity, including 500 ha of new ponds in its Puna shrimp farm (https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/ESRS/36819/omarsa-ecuador).
A second investment was approved in 2017 for the construction of the second processing/packing facility (Las Brisas) (https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/ESRS/39856/omarsa-ii).
A third investment was approved in 2021 to support the  capex plan for 2021-22, which included (i) expanding the brine freezing and cold storage capacity in Las Brisas; (ii) upgrading water pumping systems in all three (3) shrimp farms; (iii) technification of its farms by investing in solar-powered automatic feeders equipped with hydrophones; and (iv) improving existing quality control laboratories (https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/ESRS/44456/rse-covid-omarsa). Omarsa’s environmental and social performance in the previous three investments has been generally satisfactory.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

As stated by the IFC, Operadora y Procesadora de Productos Marinos (“Omarsa”) is a fully integrated hatcher, processor, and exporter of shrimp located in Ecuador. Established in 1977, Omarsa is currently Ecuador’s second largest shrimp exporter. The company owns three hatcheries, three shrimp farms totaling 3,749 productive hectares (ha) in the Gulf of Guayaquil, and two processing plants (Abel Gilbert and Las Brisas) with a capacity of 160,000 tons per year located in Duran, an outskirt of Guayaquil. Shrimp farms are located in Chupadores Grande Island (Cachugran) (1,261 ha), Puna Island (1,564 ha), and the sector of Chongon (923 ha). In 2022, two new farms were acquired in Naranjal (Puerto Inca I 224.94 ha and Puerto Inca II – 327.47 ha). Omarsa is certified to multiple internationally recognized sustainability and food safety standards, including Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Best Aquaculture Practices, British Retail Consortium, Naturland Organic and Global GAP. The company purchases up to 70 percent of its process throughput in the spot market from 593 pre-approved third-party shrimp farmers.

Omarsa's majority shareholders and Project sponsors are the Vanoni family.

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
- - - - Operadora y Procesadora de Productos Marinos Omarsa S.A. Client Agriculture and Forestry

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.

General IFC Inquiries - IFC Communications:

Address: 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20433
Phone: +1 202-473-3800
Fax: +1 202-974-4384

Client - Operadora y Procesadora de Productos Marinos Omarsa S.A.:

Sandra Pardo - CFO
Phone: +593994135089
Email: Sandy@omarsa.com.ec
Address: Lotización Industrial Al Rio Solar 3, Durán 092408, Ecuador
Website: https://www.omarsa.com.ec/

Local access for project documentation:

Isla Puná, Hacienda El Carmelo, Puná, Guayaquil - Ecuador  

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

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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