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EBRD and Pol'nobanka strengthen support for Slovak farmers
With the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Pol’nobanka, the Slovak Republic’s largest lender to the agribusiness sector, will provide local-currency financing to the country’s farming community. Under a new risk-sharing agreement, the EBRD will contribute €10 million to a €33 million (SK 1.4 billion) Grain Receipt Programme run by Pol’nobanka.
The agreement stems from a programme set up in 1998 to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agribusiness sector. In 1999, the two institutions established a second programme after the successful implementation of the first. All told, the banks have now jointly extended 240 loans against warehouse receipts.
Hans Christian Jacobsen, Director of the EBRD’s Agribusiness team, said: "The EBRD continues to support this programme, as it is a very efficient and safe way to inject liquidity into the Slovak agribusiness sector. This is the second time we have renewed the programme and this time we will be able to participate in local-currency lending." The Slovak Republic is the first country in central and Eastern Europe to have used this type of financing. Bulgaria has since established a grain receipt programme of its own and a number of other countries, including Romania and Croatia, are establishing the necessary legal framework for similar programmes.
FrantiĊĦek Pali·, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Pol’nobanka, added: “We are pleased to see the benefits of several years of work with the Ministry of Agriculture, with which we have cooperated in establishing an institutional framework to successfully lend against warehouse receipts. During the first two seasons of lending we have been able to see the tangible benefits of warehouse receipts and we expect the 2000/2001 season to be even more successful."
Pol’nobanka is the largest active provider of financing to the agribusiness sector in the Slovak Republic. Founded in 1990, it has become the fifth-largest bank and one of the largest private financial institutions in the country. It is based in Bratislava and has 16 branches and 20 sub-branches. The EBRD has been a shareholder of Pol’nobanka since 1993.
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