Photo from UNIAN
Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Oleksiy Pavlenko says Ukrainian farmers may get access to loans with low rates under a special program of the European Investment Bank (EIB), which plans to allocate UAH 10 billion to support the Ukrainian agricultural sector.
"A memorandum with the European Investment Bank (EIB) has been singed at a government level to the tune of EUR 400 million, which is almost UAH 10 billion in cheap long-term loans for our farmers," the minister said in an interview with UNIAN.
The funds will be lent at interest rates that are effective for EU farmers when borrowing loans.
According to him, the Ukrainian agriculture ministry intends to provide access to these funds for the farmers in the current year.
"These funds will be distributed among the banks, and farmers will be able to take long-term loans at significantly lower interest rates," Pavlenko said.
The minister stressed that with granting simplified access to lending, the ministry intends to compensate for decreasing volumes of direct state support of the local agricultural sector, particularly livestock producers.
"Subsidies have always been fraught with significant corruption practices. There are rumors that up to 70% of the subsidies was siphoned into officials' pockets …So currently we are focusing on opening access to the loans," Pavlenko said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, in late 2015 Ukraine raised EUR 400 million from the EIB for 12 years in the framework of the Ukraine Agri-Food Apex Loan for support of fish farms and crop production. Pavlenko said previously that the funds could have been provided in early 2016.