TBC Offers Farmers New Agro Investment Loan

On September 5, Otar Danelia, Minister of Agriculture of Georgia, and TBC Bank CEO, Vakhtang Butskhrikidze, held a press conference in TBC Bank’s head office in Tbilisi to introduce the new Agro Investment Loan to farmers, a new product initiative from TBC Bank.

Aiming to support agricultural development, and realized within the framework of the project ‘Preferential Agro Credit,’ this marks a first for Georgia, with TBC Bank and the Ministry of Agriculture offering an unprecedented agro investment loan for those involved in the agricultural sector.

With an investment loan from GEL 20,000 up to USD 600,000, farmers will have the chance to utilize the money to build perennial gardens with a 5-year grace period for repayment. The interest rate will be partially or fully covered by the State, which in turn will enable farmers to repay the loan only when the gardens enter the fruiting phase.

At present the Agro Investment Loan is for physical or legal entities owning at least 1 hectare of land and interested in the cultivation of perennial plants. It will fully finance the gardening and consequent process of planting and care up until fruiting. At the same time, farmers will be able to benefit from the ‘Plant the Future’ project initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture, receiving 70 percent towards the cost of planting and 50 percent of irrigation system costs in the form of grants.

As TBC CEO Vakhtang Butskhrikidze stated, the significance and uniqueness of this project lay in the fact that individuals either employed or generally interested in working in the agricultural field will be given a long term (at least five year) time frame to start repaying the initial loan. “It’s a very important and interesting initiative which we will hopefully develop further in the coming years,” he said.

“This is a project that fully reflects and answers the market needs of today,” added Minister Danelia, highlighting that it will be a great assistance to farmers, representing almost 53% of the country’s population, having no financial means to properly care for plants from the initial period of planting until the harvest, considering the longevity of the process.

“This Agro Investment Loan is a powerful tool to strengthen further partnerships between state and private sectors, making all the available resources more accessible, which will potentially boost the development of the agriculture industry in the country,” Danelia added.

The Agro Investment Loan is not the only product with which TBC Bank is supporting the agricultural business. Since 2013, TBC Bank has been involved in the state programs Preferential Agro Credit and Produce in Georgia, giving 320 million GEL to 8000 of its clients.

Those interested in applying for the Agro Investment Loan are invited to contact TBC Bank.

Nino Gugunishvili