COFIDES has granted SISTEMA AZUD, a company headquartered in the Spanish province of Murcia, a loan for 0,5 million euros to establish an irrigation system factory in India.

With a total investment of 1,845 million euros, the plant will be sited at Bawal Industrial Park, 80 km from New Delhi in the Indian state of Haryana. In addition to creating 85 new jobs, the project is expected to have a beneficial effect on local economic development, in the form of training and technology and know-how transfer.

After operating in India for over 10 years through distributors, SISTEMA AZUD decided to build a production plant there in response to the high growth potential of the country’s farming market. The new plant’s output will be geared to that market.

SISTEMA AZUD, founded in June 1989 at Alcantarilla, Murcia, engages primarily in the manufacture of comprehensive drip irrigation and filtering systems. AZUD presently has subsidiaries in Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, China, India and Iran. In 2002, AZUD’s Brazilian subsidiary was granted a 605 000-euro joint venture loan drawn from COFIDES, FONPYME and FOMIN resources.

Inasmuch as the Spanish Government regards India to be a priority trading partner, in 2009 COFIDES created a Line for Financing Investment in India. Similarly, the country has a Comprehensive Market Development Plan designed by the Spanish Secretariat of State for Trade, which views the strengthening of the presence of Spanish companies in India as one of its strategic lines of action.