Project brief · North American Development Bank
Matamoros, Tamaulipas · northeastern border corridor
Individual quick freezing of regional produce, supported by a fresh packing line and an export consolidation platform that share the same cold infrastructure. Operated as a measured system, with auditable environmental performance.
What it is
The core operation is individual quick freezing. The two supporting lines exist to sustain it, not to compete with it: they share the same refrigeration plant, substation, water treatment and loading docks, so the cost of the environmental components is amortised against three revenue streams instead of one. The freezing line is built first, because it is what defines the project and what carries the fixed cost: US$620 of contribution margin per tonne against US$2.00 per case on the fresh line. The fresh line enters a year later, on the same cold plant, and keeps the refrigeration load continuous all year, which is what gives thermal storage its value.
Per year across two IQF lines, US$31.0M of revenue at full plate capacity.
Cases per year, US$49.9M. Pre-cooling, grading and packing.
Refrigerated dock positions and cross-dock, US$0.9M in service revenue.
Crop basket: broccoli, carrot, yellow corn, green bean, chilli and bell pepper, cucumber, celery and berries. Built to stagger the harvest calendar, which is what sustains plant utilisation beyond a single window.
Eligibility
Contract farming that brings 2,735 hectares and their producers into a formal, traceable chain. US$31.8M paid to growers every year.
3.5 MWp of self-consumption solar over a continuous refrigeration base load, plus thermal storage and waste heat recovery.
Dedicated treatment with circular reuse and rainwater capture. The plant withdraws 94,000 m³ a year where a conventional facility of the same capacity would withdraw 213,000.
Anaerobic digestion and vermiculture for organics, plus a packaging recovery module for the corridor: pallets, cardboard and plastic from the fresh produce crossing.
The precedent is already in the Bank's own portfolio. Sana Premium Foods, Sonora, US$16.0M certified in 2023. La Pitaya, Sonora, US$11.5M certified in 2024. Both private, both in the food value chain category.
Water and land
The World Bank Group benchmark for frozen vegetables, under good water management, is 5.0 to 8.5 cubic metres per tonne of product. It is the most water intensive process of its family, because it adds washing, blanching and rapid cooling before the tunnel. The project designs to the low end of that band and then closes the loop.
| Concept | Value | Measured against |
|---|---|---|
| Gross process and service demand | 213,000 m³/yr | What a conventional plant of the same capacity would withdraw |
| Net withdrawal with circular reuse | 94,000 m³/yr | 119,000 m³ a year that are not taken from the Rio Grande basin |
| Service connection · internal network | 10 L/s · 25 L/s | 864 m³ per day contracted; the cistern absorbs the instantaneous peak |
| On site treatment | 700 m³/day | 1,215 kg BOD per day, the organic load of a town of 20,200 people |
| Discharge to the municipal system | 100 m³/day | One sixth of what a conventional plant would discharge |
The facility does not arrive at the municipal network as one more user. It arrives with its own sanitation infrastructure. On land, the built programme is 16,000 m² of buildings plus 15,000 m² of truck court and trailer yard, 7.2 hectares in total, on a site of 15 to 20 hectares that also carries the ground mounted solar array, the treatment plant and the reserve to double the freezing line.
The border opportunity
Every truck that leaves Mexico for Texas carries wood, cardboard and plastic that become waste within days of arriving. A share of the produce is rejected or degrades before reaching the buyer. Fruits and vegetables are among the three categories most refused by the FDA at ports of entry, and decay above 15 percent triggers rejection or reconditioning. On the Texas side, wooden pallets have been banned from municipal landfill since October 2009 under HB 1465, so there is a regulatory obligation pushing the flow, and therefore a market.
This complex is the natural place to solve it. The 24 dock positions and the cross-dock exist to consolidate export cargo, which means the packaging arrives on its own, in trucks that are already coming. And the export haul returns empty, so the backhaul of pallets and cardboard from the American side travels on a trip that is already paid for.
Identified and qualitatively sized, not yet costed. Not included in the US$67.1 million of the capital budget. Proposed to the Bank as a scope extension to be defined during structuring.
Financial structure
Financing cold equipment over twenty years means paying for it after it has been replaced. Financing a building over eleven crushes the coverage ratio in the years when the plant is still ramping. The term debt is therefore split, and seasonal working capital and contingency are held outside it, as a revolving line and a standby facility, because neither should be amortised over two decades.
| Tranche | Finances | Amount | Term | Asset life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Real estate | Civil works, thermal envelope, site works, substation | US$15.3M | 20 yr | 30 to 40 years |
| B Process and cold | Refrigeration, IQF tunnels, fresh line, docks | US$20.4M | 15 yr | 12 to 15 years |
| C Environmental | Solar, thermal storage, water treatment, organics | US$6.7M | 20 yr | 20 to 25 years |
| Term debt | Amortising | US$42.5M | ||
| Revolving | Seasonal working capital | US$6.0M | 1 yr | Renewable |
| Standby | Contingency, drawn only if needed | US$5.25M |
Year five, the first year of principal repayment. Senior lender minimum is 1.30×.
Interest for year one is capitalised. Four years of principal grace inside the term.
Of installed capacity, 8,759 tonnes, well below the base case of 75 percent utilisation.
The base case runs at 75 percent utilisation of the freezing line, below the 77.8 percent median that the Mexican food industry reported across 146 monthly observations, and below its historical floor. The assumption is deliberately conservative.
Both sides of the river
The argument on the American side is not commercial, it is food security: that consumers have stable access to safe, fresh, traceable fruit and vegetables grown close by rather than ten thousand kilometres away. American counterparties are not a formality of this project. They are part of its purpose.
The Free Trade International Bridge, owned by Cameron County, has a refrigerated inspection facility with three cooled bays, the first of its kind in the county, built to maintain the cold chain for produce. It also has the shortest commercial wait times in South Texas.
Building a US$53.5 million research centre in McAllen focused on agricultural productivity in low water environments and food system biosecurity. The two technical subjects of this project.
FDA registration and FSMA compliance, USDA APHIS phytosanitary requirements, CBP clearance and trusted trader programmes.
Retail, food service and the cruise industry. Family offices backing the Series B, with real assets and land collateral behind them.
Impact
Population of the municipality of Heroica Matamoros, 2020 INEGI census.
Producers with volume and price agreed before planting, and certification financed.
Every year, directly, without the seasonal intermediary.
Per year, more than eleven times the reference project in the Bank's portfolio.
From landfill, through digestion, vermiculture and recycling.
Through thermal storage, turning the plant into a flexibility resource for the grid.
What is being asked at this stage
Working capital, buyer letters of intent and the collateral and covenant package are resolved after the Bank confirms the framing. None of them conditions today's question.