On Wednesday, February 13, 2019, Asharqia Chamber organized a meeting within the activities and programs of the Environment and Food Committee, which is directed by the Chairman of the Committee Talal Al-Rasheed.
The Director General of the Agricultural Development Fund, Munir bin Fahd Al-Sahli, said that the volume of loans received were amounted to 31.7 billion of the total 34.7 billion riyals.
He added that the number of loans provided exceeds 457 thousand loans, while subsidies to borrowers exceeded 13.5 billion riyals.
He explained that the total loans approved by the Fund since the establishment were 50 billion until the end of 2018.
During the meeting, he said that the total number of loans to the Eastern region since the establishment of the Fund exceeded 25 thousand loans worth 4 billion riyals.
While the number of specialized projects funded in the Eastern region were 703 projects with loans exceeded 900 million riyals.
He said the funded projects include poultry projects of all kinds, mechanical slaughterhouses, fish and shrimp farming projects, agricultural plant projects, dairy production and processing projects, calves feeding, refrigeration and freezing warehouses projects, meat processing projects, biomass or natural fertilizer projects, egg production, projects to benefit from the remnants of the era of olive or grain, drying projects of some paper products, complex feed plants and other projects.
He pointed out that the Fund provides credit services, including specialized projects and regular loans, credit services for working capital financing and regular operating loans.
He explained that the repayment of credit services is some long-term (10 years) and short-term (two years).
He added that the new financing products and services are the program of financing livestock farmers by providing liquidity to support small livestock farmers to overcome obstacles to the local producer and support rural areas that are characterized by livestock breeding and the creation of multiple funding channels to support the groups engaged in this activity.
He stressed that the proportion of funding is 100%.
The program of funding for primary and mobile veterinary clinics and pharmacies aims to provide the necessary services to the livestock sector and provide suitable employment opportunities for young people in the field of veterinary facilities through ensuring the safety and quality of animal products and raising the economic efficiency of the livestock sector, where the financing rate is 75% - 100%.
He explained that the Fund supports credit facilities and documentary credits through commercial banks in exchange for the guarantee of the Fund for the amount of facilities and documentary credits.
He explained that the Fund supports 4 programs: (Firewood Import Guarantee Program, Agricultural Import Guarantee Program, Green Fodder Import Guarantee Program, and Integrated Feed Industry Support Program.)
He noted that the Fund contracted with three commercial banks to provide credit facilities.
He said that the Fund is moving to provide all services that contribute to the development of the agricultural sector according to its strategy through 4 programs: (a program to support modern technologies in the agricultural sector for specialized projects by raising the funding ratio from 50% to 70% of the volume of funding, investment opportunities for date products, financing for Sustainable Rural Agricultural Development Program.)
He added that the target sectors in these programs are animal production (poultry industry), fish production (floating cages), Plant Production (Greenhouses) and the manufacture of transformative dates.
He stressed that the program to deal with loans of non-performing projects through the introduction of new investors and the opportunity for investors who are wishing to invest in the field of agriculture and the re-operation of the troubled projects of the borrowers of the Fund that contribute to increase the product and reduce the gap between supply and demand in the local markets and contribute to the development of the areas benefiting from the establishment of these projects.
He stressed that the program targets the owners of the projects affected by the Fund and agricultural companies and agricultural investors.
He added that the Fund has developed a detailed plan for the establishment of transformational date plants projects in the Kingdom to benefit from the great productive capacity of the dates sector and to create investment opportunities and employment opportunities for the Saudi youth as well.
He pointed out that the program aims to know and understand the reality of the current date manufacturing industries in the Kingdom and to stand on the current and future status of the market of products of dates and manufacturing industries, explain and detail the marketing, technical and financial feasibility in order to set up dates manufacturing plants and prepare an implementation plan for the stages of setting up date plant projects and to present a proposed scenario for the development of the Kingdom's exports of products of transformational date plants.
Finally, he referred to funding for the sustainable agricultural rural development program by harnessing all IFAD credit services to achieve sustainable rural development in all regions of the Kingdom.
The program aims to develop the production and processing of coffee, the development of beekeeping and honey production, the development of the cultivation and trade of roses, the production, processing and marketing of fruits, strengthening the capacities of small-scale fishers and fish farmers, the development of the small-scale livestock sector, the development of rainfed crops, value-added development of smallholder holdings and traditional rural agricultural activities.
