Banco do Brasil will offer BRL 240 billion in the Harvest Plan 2023/2024

The amount to be disbursed (BRL 240 billion) is 27% higher than the BRL 188 billion made available in the previous harvest (2022/2023), which ends on June 30.

BB is considered the financial institution that most finances Brazilian agribusiness. During the launch of the 2023/24 Crop Plan, the president of Banco do Brasil, Tarciana Medeiros, informed that agricultural producers can submit proposals to obtain rural credit, starting on Monday (3).

“Banco do Brasil is a great partner for agribusiness and family farming. As early as Monday, you can look for us. We will be open doors (of the bank branches) already waiting to collect the proposals. And there will be no shortage of money”, assured Tarciana Medeiros.

The vice president of Agribusiness at the institution, Luiz Gustavo Lage, reinforced that this volume of financial resources announced is the largest ever made available by the institution for a harvest plan. Luiz Gustavo detailed the benefited segments. For the financing of small and medium-sized producers, R$ 48 billion will be allocated. Entrepreneurial agriculture will count on R$ 139 billion. And the so-called agribusiness value chain will have R$53 billion. This last segment is formed by companies that supply inputs to producers, such as those that process products for the final consumer, and distributors that supply retailers and wholesalers with agribusiness products.

The BB vice-president explained that the same R$240 billion will be used for the following purposes: R$121 billion for funding lines; R$ 42 billion for investment operations; another R$ 24 billion will be directed to commercialization and industrialization operations in the countryside. And the rest, 53 billion, for other credits, such as agribusiness bonds and working capital.

No event held in Brasilia, the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Carlos Fávaro, announced the expansion of investments in bank credit lines for the construction of warehouses on farms by approximately 80%, with interest rates of 7% per year. The others will have a 60% increase in resources, at 10.5% annual interest.

“Today, we see a large storage deficit in Brazil. As the harvest is a record, there must be more warehouses to store (the grains), to give peace of mind and a deadline for this commercialization to happen and, therefore, for the producer to be more competitive”, he explained.

Minister Carlos Fávaro also declared that rural producers who adopt good practices of environmental sustainability in the countryside will have, within the new crop plan, a discount on interest on loans from banks or financial institutions. “Half a percent less interest for those producers who already have a validated Rural Environmental Registry and no environmental liabilities. It is a great evolution, for the aspect of encouraging others (producers) and also the State to improve and come to make the environmental register faster and, thus, everyone will have this degree of sustainability”.

“The great core of the harvest plan is to show the world that Brazilian producers have high technology, great productivity, but respecting the environment”, said the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock.

The Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture, Paulo Teixeira, defended the production of food to ensure food security for Brazilians.

“We lost space for the production of foods such as rice, beans, cassava, vegetables and fruits that go to the tables of the Brazilian people. We have the challenge of feeding the Brazilian people better, taking them out of serious food insecurity to eat well; and the other half, eat even better”, plans Minister Paulo Teixeira.

The minister pointed out that in Harvest Plan for Family Farming, released on Wednesday (28), is expected to reduce the interest rate, from 6% to 4% per annum, for three types of credit borrowers. For those who produce food essential to the nutrition of Brazilian families; to family farmers who opt for the sustainable production of healthy foods, with a focus on organic products, socio-biodiversity, bioeconomy or agroecology, and rural women.

Minister Paulo Teixeira reinforced that the government wants to finance smaller agricultural machines adapted to small properties “to reduce suffering, the hardship of work, to guarantee more productivity and to keep young people on the family property to carry out the succession”, pointed out the minister.