The Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation has allocated favorable loans to the agro-industrial complex in the amount of 245 billion rubles

 

 

Elena Fastova, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, said that this year has already been approved preferential short-term loans for agrarians in the amount of 245 billion rubles. According to her, this is a record amount since the launch of the preferential lending program in 2017. She also added that more than 26% of the total amount of allocated subsidies have been delivered to agrarians so far.

This year, 219 billion rubles have been allocated to the soft lending program, which is 18 billion more than in the previous year. The program allows agricultural producers to receive short-term (up to 2 years) and investment (up to 15 years) loans at subsidized rates.

The Deputy Minister also noted that despite the high Central Bank rate of 16%, a preferential rate of up to 10% for short-term and investment loans for agrarians and 6-8% for small farms is preserved. This year, 538 billion rubles have been allocated to support all sectors of the agro-industrial complex. The main attention is paid to preferential lending, support for small farms and financing of leasing of agricultural machinery, which is planned to increase by Br2 billion.

Fastova also drew attention to the reduction of profitability of crop production in 2023 to 26% from 30%, while maintaining high profitability on crops such as oilseeds, soybeans and rapeseed. At the same time, she emphasized the increase in livestock profitability to 17%, thanks to lower feed prices.

She also clarified that the main "flagship" subsidy has already been brought to 52%, although the overall target for subsidies is 50% by May 1.