Farmers feeling pressure on cash flow should contact their bank to re-structure their debt rather than relying on overdraft facilities, representatives from the pillar banks told the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee this week.
The additional cost of this spring has not been seen in banks yet and is likely resting with merchants and other creditors.
“There’s no sign of pressure on loan accounts. [There’s a] small amount of it coming up with the April milk cheque, but the cheque more or less washed that out,” said Anne Finnegan from AIB, adding that farm cash balances were up 25% year on year in Q1 of 2018.
According to Dr Ailish Byrne from Ulster Bank, this is largely down to better farmgate prices and the Government’s low-cost loan scheme last year.
The Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has met with each of the banks to discuss the roll-out of a second low-cost loan scheme in the latter half of this year.
But he said he saw no cash crisis on farms at the moment and has yet to decide on the interest rate and volume of funding to be leveraged with the €25m allocated in this year’s budget.
“We have engaged a market research firm to carry out a survey so that farmers who get it need it,” the CEO of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI), Nick Ashmore, has told the Oireachtas committee.
“This will inform how the [next] scheme works. We are doing that in conjunction with [the Department].”
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Cashflow fears mount on farms
Farmers feeling pressure on cash flow should contact their bank to re-structure their debt rather than relying on overdraft facilities, representatives from the pillar banks told the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee this week.
The additional cost of this spring has not been seen in banks yet and is likely resting with merchants and other creditors.
“There’s no sign of pressure on loan accounts. [There’s a] small amount of it coming up with the April milk cheque, but the cheque more or less washed that out,” said Anne Finnegan from AIB, adding that farm cash balances were up 25% year on year in Q1 of 2018.
According to Dr Ailish Byrne from Ulster Bank, this is largely down to better farmgate prices and the Government’s low-cost loan scheme last year.
The Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has met with each of the banks to discuss the roll-out of a second low-cost loan scheme in the latter half of this year.
But he said he saw no cash crisis on farms at the moment and has yet to decide on the interest rate and volume of funding to be leveraged with the €25m allocated in this year’s budget.
“We have engaged a market research firm to carry out a survey so that farmers who get it need it,” the CEO of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI), Nick Ashmore, has told the Oireachtas committee.
“This will inform how the [next] scheme works. We are doing that in conjunction with [the Department].”
Read more
Cashflow fears mount on farms
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