EX-IM BANK SUPPORTS AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS TO RUSSIA, EQUIPMENT TO EMPLOYEE-OWNED FARM
A loan guarantee by the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) is enabling Dairy-Tek Industries, Inc., a small, family-owned business in Irwindale, California to sell $2 million of egg processing equipment to Russia. The sale will provide residents of Moscow with egg products while sustaining 60 jobs in Irwindale.
Dairy-Tek Industries will manufacture, supply and install equipment for egg breaking, separating, and drying to produce egg powder for AOZT Tomilinskaya (AOZT), an employee-owned Russian farm with about 1,000 employees located in the Moscow suburb of Lubertzy. This equipment will be the first egg albumen machine in Russia and will permit AOZT to supply egg albumen, or egg white, powder to the Russian market, all of which is currently imported. Egg white powder is used in the production of noodles, pasta, angel food cake and other products. AOZT will also produce egg yellow powder, which is used in baking cakes and cookies. Sullair Corporation, Michigan City, Indiana is participating as a subsupplier in this project.
This is an important sale that is supporting a small business exporter, increasing U.S. agricultural equipment exports, and supporting privatization of Russia`s agriculture industry, Ex-Im Bank Chairman James A. Harmon said.
For the Russian transaction, Ex-Im Bank is guaranteeing a loan by The Bank of New York to be repaid over five years. The obligor on the guaranteed loan will be Moscow Joint-Stock Commercial Bank Vozrozhdeniye (V-Bank) (formerly Agroprombank, a leading lender to the Soviet agricultural sector).
This sale to AZOT is our first step into the Russian market. We look forward to doing more business in Russia, said Richard M. Smith, President of Dairy-Tek. Exports make up over 50 percent of Dairy-Tek`s sales. The company has contracts in Belgium, France, India and Russia. Dairy-Tek also participates in Ex-Im Bank`s Working Capital Guarantee program with a $2 million revolving line of credit to fill growing worldwide export orders for the manufacture of food and pharmaceutical spray drying equipment. The Working Capital Guarantee program enables a company to receive down payments and progress payments through the use of letters of credit, which benefit the cash flow of the company.
Nationwide, Ex-Im Bank has supported nearly 11,000 transactions with $65.5 billion in authorized financing in the past five years. More than 2,000 communities across the United States directly benefited from this support. Ex-Im Bank`s financing annually sustains an estimated 200,000 jobs directly among exporters and suppliers and another one million jobs indirectly among subsuppliers.