Agricultural companies have difficulty obtaining soft loans

The difficulties faced by agricultural companies in certain regions in approving applications for preferential short-term loans were announced on March 29 at a meeting of the operational headquarters in the Ministry of Agriculture. This was reported to Vedomosti by two of its participants. Crop growers, livestock breeders, as well as processors of agricultural products, in accordance with established standards, can receive preferential loans from banks at a rate of 1–5% for a period of 1–2 years. The loan per lender is 10-600 million rubles. depending on the region and type of activity of the company. These funds can be used to purchase seeds, plant protection products, veterinary drugs, fuel, pay wages, and so on.

The Ministry of Agriculture provides subsidies to the regions, which they send to compensate banks for the difference between the key rate (currently 7.5%) and the maximum allowable preferential rate. For 2023, 16.5 billion rubles were allocated for these purposes. According to information on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture, as of March 27, almost 20% of funds remain unused – 13.71% (out of 6.5 billion rubles) in the direction of crop production and 11.07% (out of 2.8 billion rubles) for support breeders.