The Regional Government of the Azores fixed a limit of 80 million euros with regard to the financing of credit lines to farmers, granted through the Regional Agricultural Support System (SAFIAGRI), to help farmers face the difficulties resulting from interest rate increases and the scarcity of financing sources.
This resolution of the Government of Carlos César, which institutes the new support system, will be put into practice on Wednesday. The rules regarding the functioning of the system will be publish later in a governmental dispatch emitted by regional secretaries in charge of public finances, agriculture and forestry.
The SAFIAGRI programme includes a credit line for the compensation of costs incurred in securing loans for agricultural investment in the Region, thus seeking to minimise the negative impact of interest rate rises in the cost, production and profitability structures. The second short term credit line seeks is destined to promote the development and improvement of the structural and functional conditions of the agricultural sector.
Amongst the arguments presented by the Government in favour of this new assistance scheme we find the realisation that “the evolution of interest rates in the past few years has caused some imbalances in the financial implementation of the investments already made and in those being presently made, which caused debt-repayment costs to rise to levels that could not have been predicted when they were incurred. This measure will enable the release of farmers’ resources and incomes from debt excessive debt-interest repayments.”