MILAN – DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH is investing in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is providing the food producer Vispak with a long-term loan of around 12 million EUR. With the loan Vispak will expand and modernise its production capacity – for example, its packaging technology. At the same time the company is investing in its environmental balance. So that it can supply itself with green electricity in future, it is having a photovoltaic system installed on the roof of the office building. Thus CO2 emissions are avoided and electricity costs are reduced.
The medium-sized enterprise Vispak is based in Visoko It mainly processes and sells coffee. In addition, it also produces chocolate, soups and baked goods. The company is part of the AS Group, a local food and drink producer. By expanding its capacity, the firm will be able to process more coffee in future.
The current market share amounts to approximately 20 per cent. Demand is high because Bosnia-Herzegovina is one of the top ten countries in the world when it comes to coffee consumption per capita. Vispak employs around 130 people, with the expansion of capacity creating another 30 skilled jobs.
Boosting the local food industry
Monika Beck, DEG Management Board member commented: “We are delighted to be supporting Vispak in its company development and investing directly in a company in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the first time. At the same time we are contributing to local market development by promoting higher standards in food processing and quality control, but also environmentally friendly production.”
“We thank DEG for their trust as well as the professional commitment of the teams on both sides, who were involved in implementing such an important project, which is hopefully the start of a long and successful collaboration,“ said Rusmir Hrvić (CEO of AS Group).
Financing and advising small and medium-sized enterprises is a focus of DEG. It provides them with long-term funding which is not available on the local market. In 2020 alone, DEG reached around two million small and medium-sized enterprises with its financing offers and committed around 171 million EUR to investments in the private sector in the Europe/Caucasus region.
