Cultivate Credit Union has announced that it will raise its limit for unsecured lending from €75,000 to €100,000 for periods of up to 10 years. The new limit will come into place from September 30.

Joe Healy, Chairperson of Cultivate Credit Union, said: “By raising our unsecured lending limit to €100,000, Cultivate is responding directly to the needs of farmers who require larger finance packages to grow and develop their farm business.”

The lender has also released data on its lending for the first half of 2025, which showed that the average size of loans to farmers increased by €1,000 to €39,000 when compared to the same period in 2024. The average term for loans also increased slightly, rising by 4 months to 78 months.

ADVERTISEMENT

Despite these increases, the total amount of lending outstanding fell by 7% to €30,163,610. Cultivate said that the drop was lower than the overall 21% drop in agricultural lending in the first quarter of 2025 reported by the Central Bank of Ireland.

The lender said that 70% of its loans were to beef farmers while dairy accounted for 20% and sheep at 3%. The most popular use of funds were for stocking and working capital at 26%, equipment at 21% and farm buildings at 20%.

Despite taking only one in five of the loans, the average size of a loan to dairy farmers was, at €46,491, more than €10,000 larger than the average size of loans to beef farmers.

Cultivate Credit Union loans are available from an expanding network of 175 locations across Ireland.