Developmental Investment Activities
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Ecuador
El Rosario S.A. (ERSA), an Ecuadorian company, and Camarones Humboldt Panamá S.A., a holding company, are two leaders in the Ecuadorian shrimp industry. Together, they will receive an $8 million IIC loan, divided into a seven-year, $6 million loan and a nine-year, profit-sharing $2 million loan.
The borrowers will use the loan proceeds to expand and modernize ERSA's feedmill and shrimp breeding, processing, and packing facilities in northern Ecuador. The project calls for the construction of new nursery and grow-out ponds, water chlorination and recirculation facilities, and the development of new disease-resistant shrimp stocks. These are all significant enhancements at a time when Ecuador strives to recover from a viral disease that devastated the shrimp populations of the country's Pacific coast in 1999.
The project's importance is highlighted by the fact that Ecuador is one of the world's leading exporters of fresh shrimp and obtains large amounts of foreign currency from shrimp industry activities. Thus, the IIC will be fostering development in Ecuador and helping to sustain an important source of employment in an industry that represents 250,000 direct jobs and one million indirect jobs.
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