Tha Bar Wa project organised “Awareness Workshop: Energy Efficiency in Food & Beverage (F&B) Industry” on 5th April at UMFCCI.17 business owners from Food & Beverage (F&B) industry, government representatives, professors from Yangon Technological University and representatives from 4 different partner banks, attended the event.

It aims to promote awareness on Energy Efficiency and Green Financing component among F&B business owners. During the workshop, the progress of Tha Bar Wa project, energy efficiency and green finance were presented by the respective experts. The workshop appeared a useful information sharing event for the business representatives and provided an opportunities to speak their experiences.

“SMEs owners do not realize how much energy is needed in their production and therefore their money is actually wasted on a regular basis. So the first step we do is to bring about the awareness of how much energy is consumed by an enterprise and also the loss the processes are making. In many cases, It is not so difficult to stop that loss and to actually start saving money” said by Mr. Rajat Batra, Director of SUSTENT, who also presented his real case studies in this workshop.

U Saw Tun Naing, Manager of Golden Key Fruit Drinks, whose first experience of attending such a workshop also shared, “I have seen and learnt real examples of how we can analyze energy efficiency in our business and know how much we are consuming and wasting without knowing.”
U Kyaw Lwin who has 25 years of business experience in fish processing factory shared, “I want energy and water saving technology to meet my factory needs. Although I know some organizations/ projects that are helping to find out energy saving solutions, I am looking for a consultant who can identify the solutions that I need as my factory consume 50,000 gallons of water per day, and the investment is big to treat them all.” During the workshop, he also shared about how changing a new machine in his factory helped boost his production from 16% to 18% percent. He looked proud that he has done a simple and small step for the energy efficiency by changing old machine with his new equipment which basically improved the performance of his production.

The project Manager of Tha Bar Wa Mr. Ujjwal Pokhrel said, “It is very important that we conduct such information sharing event regularly with businesses, informing them with the real business case so that enterprises are well aware of good practices and hence, come forward to collaborate with the project. This is the only way to lead the F&B sector towards cleaner production.”

Tha Bar Wa supports business from F&B industry in energy efficiency application and links the business with financial products through its partnered banks: The project is also helping national banks, to design and deliver green products to F&B businesses. Ayeyarwaddy Farmers Development Bank (A-Bank), Co-Ope rative (CB) Bank, Myanma Apex Bank and Myanmar Citizens Bank participated in the workshop.
U Sai Naw Line, Manager of SME Banking Department of CB bank said, “In line with green financing rules, we can offer with less interest rate and longer loan period for example 3 to 5 years.”
U Aung Htin Aung, Vice President of Consumer Credit (SME) of MAB explained, “They will have benefits in the longer term like reducing production cost if they invest in wastewater treatment and energy efficiency. So, green finance is “win-win” situation for the SMEs and the banks and it benefits the environment at the same time.”
“As far as I have learnt, some of our loans are already valid within the scope of green finance i.e. energy efficiency and some beverages and drinking water businesses are already using our credits for wastewater treatment system,” Daw Moe Theingi Tun Senior Vice president of SME & HP Department of MCB coated in the workshop.
The workshop was successfully concluded after the closing remark by U Aye Win, President of MFPEA, He encouraged the participants, “I hope the F&B business owners could use the knowledge and simple facts shared by experts and would also like to request to organize similar workshops in the future.”

Tha Bar Wa is 4-year project funded by the European Union (EU) under the SWITCH-Asia Programme. It is implemented by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in partnership with Myanmar Food Processors and Exporters Association (MFPEA) and Saving Banks Foundation for International Cooperation (SBFIC).
Within the lifetime of Tha Bar Wa project such workshop will be conducted in different places in Myanmar.