Araz Supermarket LLC: Building the Capacity of Smallholder Fruit and Vegetable Farmers for Climate-Resilient Farming (ADB-57290-002)

Regions
  • Europe and Central Asia
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • Azerbaijan
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Asian Development Bank (ADB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
U
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
Nov 11, 2024
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
Araz Supermarket LLC
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
  • Technical Cooperation
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Advisory Services
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 0.50 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.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 10.50 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.
Other Related Projects
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ ADB website

Updated in EWS Dec 8, 2024

Disclosed by Bank Nov 15, 2024

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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 ADB, the transaction technical assistance (TA) is designed to complement a proposed loan of up to $10 million to Araz Supermarket LLC (Araz) for the Veyseloglu Modern Retail Expansion Project in Azerbaijan. The investment will finance the expansion of Araz' dry warehouse, opening of new Araz stores and procurement of fresh produce from local suppliers.

The TA will build the capacity of [750] smallholder fruit and vegetable farmers in Lankaran-Astara and Central Aran economic regions in Azerbaijan (of which at least [262 (35%)] are women) in (i) climate smart agriculture, functional financial literacy training and gender equality for citrus and nut farmers in Lankaran-Astara (Output 1); (ii) climate smart agriculture and functional financial literacy training for fruit and vegetable nut farmers in Central Aran (Output 2). In addition, the TA will support the development of at least [two] demonstration farms in Central Aran that will (i) act as an outdoor classroom for capacity building exercises; (ii) demonstrate the effectiveness of climate smart agriculture (CSA); and (iii) pilot and demonstrate climate-resilient growing technologies and crops (Output 3). The capacity building targets for women will support boosting women's participation in agriculture and accelerate gender equality by improving their financial and technical capabilities.

 

 

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 on the companies' websites:

Veyseloglu LLC started its operations in 1994 by importing food products from Türkiye. After establishing a partnership with Ishak Yaycili, the owner of Yaycili Kardeshler company has been engaged in export and wholesale in Türkiye since 1997. The company has expanded its operations to include representatives of many world-renowned brands and now distributes 4,025 products nationwide.

The founders of the "Veyseloglu" distribution company, Aydin Veyseloglu, Ilgar Talibov and Bakhtiyar Allahverdi, assessed the opportunities in the retail sector on May 7, 2011 and decided to establish a network of Araz supermarkets.
Aiming to create a network of "Araz" supermarkets in all regions of Azerbaijan with the slogan "Wherever you are, "Araz" is there", "Araz" supermarket chain, which aims to cover the entire retail sector, first started operating in 2011 with 4 branches in Baku.
Araz supermarket currently serves its customers with about 400 markets in many parts of the country, more than 11000 employees and a modern logistics center located in Mahammadi settlement.

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
Veysaloglu Group Parent Company Industry and Trade owns Araz Supermarket LLC Client Industry and Trade

Contact Information
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No contacts provided at the time of disclosure.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

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ADB has a two-stage appeals process for requesters who believe that ADB has denied their request for information in violation of its Access to Information Policy. You can learn more about filing an appeal at: https://www.adb.org/site/disclosure/appeals

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF ADB

The Accountability Mechanism is an independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an Asian Development Bank-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the Accountability Mechanism, they may investigate to assess whether the Asian Development Bank is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. You can learn more about the Accountability Mechanism and how to file a complaint at: http://www.adb.org/site/accountability-mechanism/main.

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