Ministry of Agriculture Allocates 50 Million Euros to Subsidized Loans for Agricultural Sector Affected by Climate Change

The acting Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, has met with the president of the State Joint Stock Company for Agrarian Caution (Saeca), Pablo Pombo, to analyze and follow up on the loan lines subsidized by the ministry for provide liquidity to the agricultural sector, currently affected by the consequences of climate change (drought and other adverse climatic phenomena).

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) allocates 50 million euros to the capital amortization bonus on loans, through the ICO-MAPA-SAECA agreement. At the meeting it was revealed that, in just two months, the requests received already represent 20% of the total capacity of this line.

Up to 15% of the principal of loans subscribed by agricultural holdings and operators in the fishing and aquaculture sector will be repaid, with a term of up to 15 years and with grace periods of up to 3 years, depending on the duration of the loan. The maximum amount of the subsidy, which is de minimis aid, amounts to 15,000 euros.

Likewise, the ministry contributes 4.7 million euros to subsidize the cost of the SAECA guarantee. Both lines of aid are compatible.

Subsidies can be requested through financial entities with broad territorial coverage (they can be consulted on the ministry’s website), until September 15, 2024.

Since this ICO-MAPA-SAECA aid line was launched in May 2022, applications have been received for an amount of 327.5 million euros in subsidized loans and with a subsidy for the cost of the guarantee. Specifically, the total credit subsidized to the agricultural sector has amounted to 241 million euros. Young farmers and ranchers accounted for 45% of the total guaranteed in this line and the purchase of land has been the main destination, with 44.7%. Regarding the MAPA-SAECA lines, the percentage of young farmers who used this line rose to 30% in 2022.

So far in the current term, SAECA has guaranteed a total of 32,649 new loans to farmers and ranchers throughout the national territory, which represents an amount of just over 1,000 million euros. These figures represent 30% of the amounts and 25.7% of the operations of all the historical formalizations carried out by SAECA, since its foundation in 1988, 35 years ago.