Ministry of Agriculture of Russia: Preferential short-term lending in the agro-industrial complex of the Russian Federation increased by almost 1.7 times

"According to the results of 2022, the loan portfolio amounted to more than 600 billion rubles, which is 67% more than in 2021," the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture told Interfax.

The volume of subsidies in 2022 for these purposes amounted to 33.1 billion rubles.

The press service also reported that at the end of last year, the agency approved applications for preferential loans to agricultural producers for the entire amount of funding provided for 2023. The Ministry of Agriculture considers this measure of state support to be highly effective and in demand among agricultural producers.

"If additional funding is allocated, the maximum size of a preferential short-term loan will be reviewed," the ministry said.

As Deputy Minister of Agriculture Elena Fastova reported at a round table in January this year, in general, 179.4 billion rubles were allocated for concessional lending (short-term and investment) in 2022. In 2023, 157.9 billion rubles are provided. “Outwardly, it seems that this is a decrease, but due to the fact that the weighted average key rate in 2023 is lower than in 2022, we proportionally maintain this type of support at the level of 2022,” she explained.

In mid-January, the Ministry of Agriculture approved a concessional lending plan for 2023. It provides subsidies for new short-term loans in the amount of 16.5 billion rubles, for new investment loans - 5 billion rubles. Another 136.4 billion rubles will be used to service obligations under previously concluded loan agreements.

Including about 6.5 billion rubles were allocated for new short-term loans for the development of crop production and 17.7 billion rubles for subsidizing previously taken loans. For the development of animal husbandry - 2.7 billion and 8.7 billion rubles, respectively, for the processing of crop and livestock products - almost 1.9 billion and 7.5 billion rubles.

Subsidies for new short-term loans in dairy cattle breeding will amount to more than 1.9 billion rubles, under previously executed agreements - more than 5.5 billion rubles. For small farms, 3.3 billion rubles are provided for new loans and almost 6 billion rubles for subsidizing existing ones. In the beef cattle breeding sector, subsidies are expected at the level of 232 million and 381.5 million rubles, respectively.

The program of preferential lending to farmers in its current form was launched in the Russian Federation in 2017. Agricultural producers can take a short-term or investment loan at a rate of up to 5% for the development of crop and livestock production, as well as for the construction, reconstruction or modernization of enterprises for the processing of agricultural raw materials. Preferential short-term credit is issued for up to 1 year, investment - from two to 15 years.