Iryna Palamar spoke at the Office of the National Investment Council under the President of Ukraine for signing a memorandum with banks on lending issues

On April 5, 2018 in the Office of the National Investment Council under the President of Ukraine, where the first meeting of the working group on improving the investment attractiveness of the agricultural sector was held, the head of the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association Iryna Palamar raised an extremely important and relevant topic for agrarians. The head of the USBA suggested signing a memorandum with state banks on lending issues.

Iryna Palamar appealed to the head of the Office of the National Investment Council under the President of Ukraine Yuliia Kovaliv in order to initiate the signing of a memorandum between the state and banks that they give loans for less collateral.

This was due to the fact that today in the agricultural sector there is a situation in which medium and small enterprises in practice can not receive loans for a number of reasons. First of all, this is a very high ratio of collateral that an entrepreneur must provide: for example, on an average of 1 UAH of the loan, an applicant must give 1.5 UAH collateral. The very collateral property, in turn, is estimated by banks, very low. In addition, banks put forward very stringent conditions, not all enterprises can fulfill them - by the number of employees, etc. In pig production, the situation is even more complicated: one more problem is added to all the above - a serious threat of ASF, which makes the pig-breeding enterprise subject to high risks, so they do not want to lend at all.

Especially relevant this issue is for young farmers who just want to open a business, and require funds for this. However, loans are also essential for the development of existing farms; and in order to keep the business, because agricultural enterprises at the time when they canceled VAT refunds, too, is in tough position.

In addition, lending is necessary for the implementation of various types of investment projects, since, in fact, the main task of the working group was to highlight the issues of improving the investment attractiveness of the agricultural sector.

All present at the meeting, including the president of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), Morgan Williams, approvingly approached such an initiative.

Iryna Palamar agreed with the head of the Office of the NIS under the President of Ukraine Yuliia Kovaliv that the Association will forward its proposals, which will be considered and taken into account. It was only the first meeting of the working group, but the Ukrainian Stock Breeders Association will continue to raise this issue, as well as a number of other important aspects in the following working discussions.