Brazil’s BNDES makes available US$1 billion for small rural producers

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) will make available to small rural producers R$5.1 (US$1) billion of the 2021/2022 Crop Plan.

The resources are available until June 30, 2022. According to the bank’s president, Gustavo Montezano, this is the first time that the institution allocates to the National Program for Strengthening Family Agriculture (Pronaf) R$1 to every R$4 made available in the Crop Plan.

The resources for Pronaf have expanded by 58%. In the previous harvest, small farmers received R$3.3 billion.

In total, the current Harvest Plan will offer R$20 billion to the national agricultural sector, of which R$17.1 billion in resources subsidized by the Union and around R$3 billion in BNDES’s own line to be accessed by rural producers, companies, and cooperatives of the sector.

BNDES clarified that the resources subject to economic subsidy would be applied through ten programs, nine of which are aimed at corporate agriculture, with a total of R$11.9 billion and interest rates between 5.5% and 8.5% per year.

Pronaf will have annual rates between 0.5% and 4.5%. Through the BNDES Rural Credit Program, which does not count on economic subsidy and keeps resources available throughout the year, producers should count on around R$3 billion in financing.
Without limit

Gustavo Montezano said that “the desire is to serve more rural producers, increasingly reducing the average ticket.

For the 2020/2021 harvest, the bank made R$3.6 billion available with its own resources. “For this year, we do not see any budget limitation for the bank’s own resources,” he said.

The BNDES’ credit is obtained through a network of more than 60 accredited financial agents, which allows the distribution of resources throughout the country, aiming to meet the various needs of producers, such as the acquisition of machinery and equipment, investment projects, costing, investments in sustainability, storage, innovation, and modernization of cooperatives.

In the 2020/2021 Crop Plan, BNDES approved financing for R$ 19.8 billion for more than 60 thousand beneficiaries, of which R$ 17 billion for corporate agriculture and R$ 2.8 billion for family agriculture.