OREANDA-NEWS. December 11, 2009. In November 2009, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) issued a guarantee through its Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP) for the purpose of importing machinery and equipment for turkey meat production. This guarantee was covered by a EUR5 million letter of credit issued by Kazkommertsbank, Almaty in Kazakstan and confirmed by Bank Hapoalim, Tel Aviv in Israel, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

This transaction is part of a larger deal to facilitate the import of agricultural equipment from Israel to Kazakhstan. The main parties to the transaction are the exporter, M.A.D Developing Agricultural Projects (2003) Ltd., an Israeli company specialising in developing farming operations and the importer, Ordabasay Kus located in Kazakhstan who will act as a lessee by leasing the equipment and machinery for turkey meat production from KazAgroFinance.

“The guarantee for import of agricultural equipment is a good example of transactions facilitated through the TFP in Kazakhstan. In times of crises, when most foreign confirming banks have closed lines for Kazakhstan, the TFP is often the only solution to route certain trade” said Rudolf Putz, TFP Operation Leader at the EBRD.

In order to compensate for the lack of available trade limits from the commercial market, this year alone, almost 100 transactions worth over EUR100 million have been supported by the EBRD’s TFP programme in Kazakhstan, thus providing additional benefits to the trade finance market.

The EBRD's TFP promotes foreign trade with Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Through the programme, the EBRD provides guarantees to international confirming banks. In so doing, it takes the political and commercial payment risk of transactions undertaken by issuing banks in the countries where the EBRD operates. The programme can guarantee any genuine trade transaction associated with exports from, imports to, and between the EBRD's countries of operations. Within the TFP, there are115 issuing banks participating in the programme in the Bank's region of operations along with over 700 confirming banks throughout the world. Since the start of the programme in 1999, TFP has facilitated more than 8,500 transactions totalling to the amount of almost EUR 6 billion.