ROME – “Access to credit is and remains a deeply felt issue in all the main production sectors that contribute to the stability and growth of the country, obviously starting from agriculture, a sector that historically suffers from notable and atavistic difficulties in this area ; for this reason we can only welcome any possible intervention that aims to give oxygen to the thousands of producers struggling with the effects of the negative economic situation and extreme climatic events”.
This was underlined by the vice-president of Copagri Giovanni Bernardini, who participated in the founding meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Guarantee Fund for SMEs, held at Mimit.
“In this sense, it is more than positive to think about possible changes to the operations of the Fund, evaluating the possibility of allowing companies that have benefited from an extension of an existing guarantee on a loan to benefit from the same guarantee also on new loans, even if the previous one has not reached the end of the amortization period; it is understood, obviously, that all this must be conditional on compliance with certain requirements, i.e. that the loan is performing and there are no previous unpaid installments”, continues the vice president, giving an account of the outcomes of the meeting.
“At present, in fact, the Fund does not allow companies that are recipients of a loan subject to extensions to be able to benefit from the guarantee for new operations, for example for investments, until the other loan is closed”, explains Bernardini, specifying that “this occurs because any extensions granted are ‘read’ and classified as a condition of difficulty”.
“As an Advisory Committee we have agreed on the need to overcome this approach, which in many cases appears decidedly limiting for the competitiveness of businesses and the country”, announces the vice-president, in whose opinion “a similar intervention would bring enormous benefits to the Head Doctor, in how much it would fully respond to the needs and specificities of the agricultural sector, which only a few years ago was allowed access to the Guarantee Fund for SMEs, thanks to the fundamental intervention included in the so-called ‘Cura Italia DL’ dating back to July 2020 ”.
Check the email to confirm your subscription to the Agricultura.it newsletter
Advertising information
