$6 million project to benefit as many as 500 small and medium-sized dairy producers
The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), in partnership with the Cooperativa Nacional de Productores de Leche (CONAPROLE), is launching a $6 million project to help expand access to clean and efficient energy for small and medium-sized dairy farmers in Uruguay.
Working alongside dairy producers, government agencies and the industry, the project will support measures to improve energy efficiency in farms by combining technical assistance with financing to access energy saving technologies. The project will help increase the competitiveness of an industry whose energy consumption accounts for 18 percent of the total energy consumed by the Uruguayan agricultural sector.
The project will develop at least four types of energy efficiency solutions to be offered to farmers as well as financing alternatives for participants to implement such solutions. The project is expected to benefit as many as 500 milk producers from Uruguay’s dairy belt by allowing them to increase efficiency in milk collection and adopt at least one energy efficiency measure and/or incorporate renewable energy into their production systems.
“This project will provide energy efficiency technical services in rural areas and a substantial reduction in costs by seeking standard solutions to shared problems faced by small and medium-sized producers, who usually lack access to affordable consulting and energy auditing services as well as financing to improve energy efficiency of their farms,’’ said Ana Castillo, the project team leader for the MIF. “This investment helps Uruguay overcome one of the key barriers to improve the efficiency of its already globally competitive dairy industry.”
Once the solutions are developed, they will be offered to producers through a partnership between UTE, Uruguay’s state-run power utility, and CONAPROLE, who is owned by more 2,000 dairy farmers. UTE will sign contracts with farmers to implement energy efficiency solutions. Payments for those solutions will be deducted from savings on future power bills.
By empowering rural milk producers in Uruguay and helping expand access to finance and cleaner energy, the MIF honors its commitment to the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean to considerably improve their lives.
About the Multilateral Investment Fund
Established in 1993, as part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) was created to develop effective approaches to support economic growth and poverty reduction through private sector-led development in support of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) benefitting the poor—their businesses, their farms, and their households.