Rosselkhozbank (RSHB) provides the main financing for the Russian agro-industrial complex and is a leader in the banking market for seasonal work and long-term investment projects, as well as preferential lending to agricultural producers. Rosselkhozbank's stable and timely credit support for the industry has ensured its confident growth over the past years. Since the launch of the state program for the development of agriculture in 2008, the bank has provided farmers with over 6.2 trillion rubles. As a result, Russia has made significant progress in import substitution and is ready to increase exports of domestic agricultural products.

Entering international food markets is a new challenge for Russian agricultural producers. We must understand that we will face tough competition. No one is waiting for us there.

To increase the export potential of the business, farmers need to improve the competitiveness of their products and ensure their processing, thereby increasing the added value. This is a capital-intensive process that requires significant investments in the creation of new and modernization of existing processing industries. The experience of the Russian Agricultural Bank in the agro-industrial complex financing market allows for a deep examination of projects, their adequate structuring, and the formation of an effective business model regardless of the scale of the business and the chosen industry. The bank helps farmers make their projects interesting for export, provides clients with a clear unified "map" of government support measures.

Support for the agro-industrial complex in figures

786 billion rubles
Rosselkhozbank has directed lending to the domestic agricultural sector since the beginning of 2018, of which 18% was provided to processors of agricultural raw materials

16%
This is how much RSHB increased the issuance of investment loans over the first nine months of 2018, to 194.6 billion rubles; lending for seasonal work over the same period increased by 14% and amounted to 242 billion rubles.

In turn, to ensure the inflow of investments into the agricultural sector, stable conditions for doing business in the medium term, and preferably long term, and guaranteed instruments of support from the state are necessary. Investment stability will facilitate the inflow of funds into the sector. Today, financing of the Russian agricultural sector is set for the next three years and is adjusted annually, which does not allow banks to take into account state subsidies when assessing long-term credit projects.

It is necessary to further develop the instrument of interest rate subsidies through banks. The mechanism of preferential lending at a rate of no more than 5% has proven itself well and is in demand among farmers. Since the launch of the program, the Russian Agricultural Bank has provided agricultural enterprises with about 244 billion rubles, of which 135.6 billion have been issued since the beginning of 2018. At the same time, the bank occupies a 32% share of the preferential lending market.

Other structural constraints that hinder the growth of foreign trade in agricultural products include the insufficient level of development of the agro-logistics infrastructure and restrictions on access to the world market due to the incomplete compliance of Russian products with the epizootic and phytosanitary requirements of individual countries.

The text was prepared based on the materials of the speech at the III annual Agrarian Forum of Russia, held by the Vedomosti newspaper on October 23, 2018 in Moscow

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