Thursday, August 17 2017 17:37

ArmInfo. Ministry of  Agriculture of Armenia signed a three sided  memorandum with SME  Investments and the Office of Agricultural Economic Development  Programs, which will implement a pilot program of partial subsidizing  of agricultural loans for harvesting (purchasing) agricultural raw  materials by processing enterprises. As the press service of the  ministry told ArmInfo, for the processing of fruits and vegetables  and grapes, credits will be issued for a period of 1 year at 3% per  annum.

"Since the program is pilot, maximum amount of lending will be 150  million AMD. But in subsequent years, the amount of loans will  increase, " Deputy Agriculture Minister Robert Makaryan said.  For  his part, Hrach Darbinyan, Deputy Executive Director of UKK Ignetsi  SME noted that the implementation of the program would allow  processing enterprises to increase the volumes of harvesting and  exporting, and also to expand the types of harvested products. Acting   Director of State Agency for Agricultural Financing Vahe Harutyunyan  added that today many processing enterprises have problems with  financing.  "Previously, funds were provided to enterprises at high  interest rates, which made it difficult for companies to meet their  obligations to contractors," he said.

According to the source, already three banks agreed to join the  program, participation of other banks is awaited in future. 

Based on the results after the first year of program implementation  it will be possible to develop proposals for improving the efficiency  of development of means ",  the official message of Agriculture  Ministry reads.