BSTDB provided EUR 35 million to support the operations of Bulgaria’s leading producer of vegetable oil Oliva and its parent company, Buildcom. The short-term trade finance facility is part of a debut group secured syndicated facility contributed by BSTDB and international commercial banks. The additional liquidity funding source, complementary to the lines of credit from local banks, was needed due to expanded production activity of Oliva: in October 2019 the company started to operate its third new crushing plant next to Varna port on the Black Sea shore, thus doubling the crushing capacity of the company.

BSTDB funding was provided amid the challenging environment of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It finances the group’s purchases of sunflower and rapeseed for the crushing business cycle at three factories, including the prepayments to farmers before and during harvesting the crops, thus enabling Oliva to secure its supply contracts and future deliveries.

The loan follows the whole production logistics, from financing purchases and storage of feedstocks, funding the industrial crushing cycle, the storage of the vegetable oils and by‐products, until transit and export take place and sales collection is achieved. In addition, the financing strengthens another business line of the group, the grain trade: the procurement, transportation, storage of grains and seeds and their export to the international markets. This activity is performed by the group in parallel to the crushing business, as farmers usually produce both oil seeds and grains.