Banks will determine key areas for concessional lending to farmers
18.01.2017
The Ministry of Agriculture of Russia has decided on the list of areas for which loans will be issued at a reduced rate of no more than 5%.
However, experts say that there is not enough guidance on which sectors of the agro-industrial complex are currently a priority, and this task will lie with credit organizations, Izvestia writes.
The head of the National Meat Association, Sergei Yushin, believes that the list of directions covers “practically everything, including space flight.” That is, there is no indication of which projects should be relied on in the first place. Thus, the banks themselves will choose which industries are the most promising today.
“And it is not a fact that financial institutions will not give preference to easy projects with quick returns and will not leave behind difficult projects with long payback periods,” Sergey Yushin explains the complexity of the situation.
According to the data provided in the ministry’s documentation, preferential loans can be taken for the purchase of mineral fertilizers, seeds, spare parts and materials for the repair of agricultural machinery, raw milk for the production of cheeses, butter and dry dairy products; young cattle of dairy breeds, feed, veterinary drugs, sugar beet for its subsequent processing, grain (including oilseeds) for processing, agricultural raw materials for the production of baby food, vegetables and fruits grown in Russia for the canning industry, etc.
You can also get a soft loan for the purchase of agricultural machinery and equipment, construction, reconstruction, modernization of storage facilities for sugar beet, potatoes, vegetables and fruits, sugar factories; construction of greenhouse complexes for the production of fruit and vegetable products in closed ground, enterprises of the flour and cereal, baking and oil and fat industries, processing facilities for fruit and vegetable, berry products, grapes and potatoes, laying and caring for perennial plantations, including vineyards, facilities for the production of wine products produced from own grapes grown in Russia; construction of pig farms; construction of enterprises for the production of whole milk products, cheeses and butter, purchase of breeding products, etc.