New standards strengthen the CPR as a financing instrument for agribusiness

With the aim of improving devices that standardized the Rural Product Certificate (CPR), this Wednesday (20/07), the Law No. 14.421 / 2022. One of these improvements was the expansion of the concept of rural product, in order to allow the capture of resources both for environmental conservation and preservation projects (CPR Verde), and to finance other links in the production chain (suppliers of inputs and equipment and processors). .

The provisions dealing with the registration of guarantees and the procedures and deadline for registering titles were also improved.

The current law is the result of the conversion of Provisional Measure (MP) No. 1.104/2022. The original text of the MP included specific changes to provisions of laws No. 8.929/1994, which established the Rural Product Certificate, and 13.986/2020, known as the Agro Law.

In the first law, the purpose was to regulate the procedures for the electronic signature of the CPR and in the separate document with the description of the linked assets (simple, advanced or qualified electronic signatures are permitted) and in the registration and endorsement of real guarantees for movable assets and real estate (only advanced or qualified electronic signatures are permitted).

The proposed changes to the Agro Law aim to relieve creditors of the responsibility of also paying up quotas in the Solidarity Guarantee Funds, under the argument that they already assume the risk of operations in cases of default by contractors.

This new law also improved provisions that deal with Affected Rural Heritage, both in the Agro Law and in other regulations. These are the cases of Decree-Law No. 3.365/1941, which speeds up the expropriation rite, allowing the immediate transfer of ownership of the property to the expropriator, even without the express consent of the expropriated person. And the inclusion of a provision in law no. 6.015/1793, to contemplate the registration of rural assets allocated as collateral at the Property Registry Office.

“The objective was to simplify the processes of fiduciary alienation and excussion of the portion of the property given as collateral in the credit operation, in order to offer greater legal security for the creditor, in case of the need to execute the debt”, explains the coordinator of Financing of the Agricultural Policy Secretariat of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa), José Nilton de Souza Vieira. 

The new legislation also includes adjustments to the rules that deal with rural pledges, in particular law no. 492/1937, which now allows electronic signatures on the private pledge deed, and Decree-Law no. seized assets may be the subject of a new cedular pledge in a degree subsequent to the pledge originally constituted, as well as dispensing with the drawing up of an addendum and signature of the issuer, when extending the maturity of Rural Credit Notes.

The SPA/Mapa Financing Coordinator highlights that updating these standards should leave agribusiness as an even more solid and secure alternative for private investors. It should be noted that attracting new investors is essential to ensure the continued growth of the sector, especially in a context in which state fiscal restrictions limit the growth of rural credit with controlled resources.