New financial instruments for Russian and Ukrainian agriculture
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) are promoting new financial instruments to help unlock agricultural potential in Russia and Ukraine at a time of rising food prices.
The institutions are turning the focus on legislation that could help boost pre-harvest investments by farmers and allow for future crops to be used as collateral against loans. The aim is to remove the lack of security that means farmers cannot make investments.
The EBRD and the IFC will help officials from both countries study a similar programme in Brazil, called the Crop Receipts programme, which was brought into existence by a 1994 law and has helped the agricultural sector towards growth: it now accounts for 30 per cent of the country’s GDP.
Industry players Syngenta, Louis Dreyfus, BASF SE, Bunge and Avgust sponsored a study tour of Brazil for high-level officials form Russia and Ukraine in March 2011.
