European bank funds Turkish seed firm May Seed to back operation

• €10 million loan to help Turkish seed company May Seed expand operations and automate research and development (R&D)
• Improvements will strengthen market position in the domestic market and boost exports
• May Seed committed to equipping local farmers with financial management skills

Leading Turkish seed company May Seed is expanding operations and its research and development (R&D) capacity with a €10 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The company operates two conditioning plants for field crop and vegetable seed processing in the cities of Bursa and Adana with an annual capacity of 35,000 tonnes, and has several R&D centres across Turkey. It runs its own seed breeding programmes for sunflower, corn, cotton and beans. The company exports to more than 40 countries.

The EBRD loan will help May Seed expand operations, renovate production and R&D facilities and enhance the automation of R&D. The improvements will strengthen the company’s position in Turkey and existing export markets and will help it venture into new export markets. May Seed will also benefit from an EBRD-backed advisory project to further boost its competitiveness at home and abroad.

In addition, the EBRD is providing its own grant funds to finance May Seed’s comprehensive financial literacy programme for Turkish farmers. Small local seed growers are at the heart of May Seed’s business model. However, their limited financial skills hold them back from accessing new opportunities. May Seed aims to train more than 250 farmers in the Aegean, central Anatolia and Marmara regions of Turkey.

Helping to open up economic opportunities for people living in more remote regions of Turkey is one of the EBRD’s priorities in the country.

The Bank is a major investor in Turkey. Since 2009 it has invested €12 billion in various sectors of the Turkish economy, with almost all investment made in the private sector.