Due to a sharp increase in inflation, difficulties with imports, and an increase in the cost of loans this season, the total cost of sowing wheat, sunflower, potatoes, vegetables and sugar beets may reach a record 1 trillion rubles, Kommersant reports.
This is at least 20% higher than a year ago. Current state support programs for the industry, according to market participants, cover only a third of the necessary costs. It has become almost impossible for agribusiness workers to get the required preferential loans in some regions due to the lack of limits.
Similar assessments were made public by representatives of Soyuzmolok on March 21 at a meeting of the State Council for Agriculture. According to the association, the current preferential program for lending to farmers at a rate of 5% and state support for backbone enterprises in the agricultural sector will cover only 30% of the required amount. Soyuzmolok General Director Artem Belov confirmed these calculations to Kommersant.
The Ministry of Agriculture told Kommersant that it was premature to talk about the lack of funds for the sowing campaign. The department believes that an additional 35 billion rubles allocated from the budget this year. enough to subsidize preferential loans at 5%. But these limits will allow farmers to attract only about 150 billion rubles for sowing, and another 200 billion rubles. under 10% in the form of state support, agricultural holdings can receive as backbone enterprises, they insist in Soyuzmolok.
This year, according to the forecasts of the Ministry of Agriculture, the grain harvest in the country should be about 123 million tons, oilseeds - 22,6 million tons, sugar beet - 41,5 million tons, potatoes - 6,8 million tons, open ground vegetables - 5,2 .XNUMX million tons.
Another problem is the reduction of limits on soft loans. Last year, this amount was 1,5 billion rubles. per borrower, now, despite a more serious crisis, the amount is limited to 500 million rubles, says a Kommersant source in one of the agricultural holdings.
Some farmers are faced with a refusal to receive preferential loans, despite the increase in subsidies from the Ministry of Agriculture, confirms Mikhail Glushkov, director of the National Fruit and Vegetable Union.
According to him, such a situation has developed, for example, in the Tyumen region and Bashkiria: "Banks refer to the exhaustion of limits on soft loans." VTB, Sberbank and Rosselkhozbank claim that they continue to issue preferential loans.
In past years, producers have widely used for seed and commercial loans at 10-12%, market participants say. But after the key rate was increased to 20% in February, the cost of such loans rose to 25%, Dmitry Matveev, chairman of the board of directors of Kabosh Group of Companies, explains: “It is unrealistic to take such loans for sowing, no one will ever return them.” If, under the new market conditions, 500 million rubles are borrowed, then companies will have to pay 100 million rubles to banks in the form of interest alone, which disrupts the entire economy of the agricultural producer, agrees Mikhail Glushkov.
This season, some companies are forced to use market loans, albeit in a minimal amount, but this will affect the growth of production costs, says a Kommersant source in another agricultural holding. Dmitry Matveev does not rule out an uncontrolled rise in prices for agricultural products in the foreseeable future due to the unavailability of soft loans.