ProCredit supports agriculture

TIRANA, Oct. 9 – ProCredit Bank has been the only one supporting the Albanian agriculture sector these years. Since three years it has started a project supporting agriculture and livestock production in the country, the bank said in a statement. It has offered loans to Albanian agriculture since 2001 but it really started to offer that product since Sept. 2003 in all the districts it covers, according to Jonela Ketri, head of the credit department. Agriculture is a main sector in the country’s economy but with less investment. The current portfolio of crediting is some 3,000 loans in a total of 5 million euro. It was doubled since Dec. 2004 when it was only 2.6 million euro. Since the start of 2004 it has given some 4,515 loans in a total of 10.6 million euro. The areas it covers are Lushnja, Fieri, Berati, Kor衬 Pogradeci, Lezha, Durr촩, Elbasani that have most of the loans. The loan may be used to increase livestock, buy chemical pesticides, and invest in new equipment and so on. The bank has facilitated the loan procedure this year. Now ProAgro, as the credit line is named, is faster and with more economic interests, without any added cost. Any farmer may receive a loan but he should have normally a six-month experience or two seasons of experience, according to Ketri. It is also needed that the farmer has two sources of revenues that are from agriculture and livestock, or something like this. Norms of interest vary from 1.5 percent to 2 percent a month. The time period may be from 6 months to 60 months, or 5 years. The bank has 25 experts in agriculture who help it spread services among farmers.