20 million to support local malt production and barley farming

The EBRD is investing €20 million to finance the construction of a greenfield malt plant in the city of Buzau in south eastern Romania which is being built by Soufflet Malt Romania S.A. The investment is expected to provide substantial support to the local farming community and expand the volumes of malting barley available to local breweries.

The new plant, which will have a maximum annual capacity of 105,000 tonnes of malt, is scheduled to start operation in September 2008. The new plant will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology and machinery which is expected to substantially reduce energy consumption compared to older facilities.

Malt is produced from barley, which is grown in the vicinity of the new plant. Since it entered the Romanian market in 1998, Soufflet has helped increase the local production of malting barley as well as improve quality. Today, the company aims to buy all malting barley it needs for malt production from local producers.

Serban Ghinescu, Deputy Head of the Bucharest Resident Office of the EBRD said at the signing today in Bucharest that the project is expected to provide a substantial support to the development of farming in Romania and expand the availability of quality raw material for local malt and beer operations. Furthermore, the modern technology and equipment to be used in the construction of the new plant will result in energy efficiency improvements expected to contribute to substantial energy savings compared to similar facilities in the country, Mr Ghinescu added.

Bruno Cothenet, Eastern European Malting Director of Soufflet, said that this investment is the achievement of our long-standing presence in Romania. In addition to the construction of the plant, Soufflet will extend its support to farmers by transferring knowledge, introducing leading international practices in cultivating malting barley and new varieties, with the aim to improve farm productivity and quality. Through barley procurement and malt sales, this project will open up a sustainable and a reliable market to more Romanian farmers and brewers and will bring added value for the Romanian economy. Furthermore, Soufflet carefully takes the environment into consideration by using latest technologies in its production processes, Mr Cothenet added.

Soufflet Malt Romania S.A., majority-owned by Compagnie Internationale de Maltieres SA (France), was established in 1998 and is the second largest malt producer in Romania. The EBRD and the Soufflet Group, the world leader in malt production, have been partners since 1998 when they signed a multi-project framework agreement for financing investments of the group in the EBRD’s countries of operations. As a result of the cooperation, to date the EBRD have already provided financing in the amount of €125 million for 14 projects involving investments by the Soufflet Group in malt production, procurement of agricultural commodities and trading in the Czech Republic, Poland, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Romania and Kazakhstan. Today, in this region Soufflet Group has malt operations in Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Poland, the Russian Federation, Serbia and Ukraine.