Rural credit disbursement reaches R$148 billion by October, an increase of 22%

Rural credit disbursement totaled R$148,25 billion in the 2022/23 harvest, up to October, an increase of 22% compared to the same period in the previous harvest. Cost financing continues at a strong pace, with an investment of R$98,29 billion (+50%). Investments, with R$ 33,86 billion, sales, with R$ 8,93, and industrialization, with R$ 7,17 billion, registered a drop compared to the same period last year.

According to the Agricultural Policy Secretariat of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa), financing intended for investments tends to intensify in the coming months, concomitantly with the trend of retraction in financing costs.  

The increase in the contracting of financing costs resulted from the increase in production costs and market opportunities dictated by favorable price and demand conditions. This increase was 42% under Pronaf and 73% under Pronamp, standing at R$16,30 billion and R$24,60 billion, respectively. In terms of the number of funding contracts per program, the increases were 30% for Pronamp, 6% for Pronaf 6% and 9% for other producers.

The director of Financing Policy for the Agricultural Sector at Mapa, Wilson Vaz de Araújo, highlights that the significant increase in Pronamp financing also resulted from the predominance of a more favorable interest rate compared to that applicable outside the program, compared to the previous harvest.

On the other hand, investment contracts increased only within the scope of Pronaf (+3%), standing at R$ 8,82 billion, possibly due to the attractiveness of interest rates, given that the rates freely practiced by the market are approximately twice superiors. 

In relation to the sources of rural credit resources, the share of mandatory resources in total contracts reduced from 28% to 21%, standing at R$ 30,88 billion, and the share of controlled rural savings resources increased by 20% to 24%, reaching R$36,00 billion, an increase of 52%. Resources with controlled interest totaled R$92,31 billion (+12%), and with free interest R$55,94 billion (+42%). 

Wilson Vaz reiterated the importance of the contribution of the Agribusiness Letter of Credit (LCA) to the rural credit funding, which stands out for being the main source of uncontrolled resources, with resources from this source having increased by 137%, standing at R$ 36,62 billion, accounting for 25% of rural credit, adequately complementing financing, especially funding, to large and medium producers. 

The values ​​presented are provisional and were extracted, on the 4th of this month, from the Rural Credit and Proagro Operations System (Sicor/BCB), which records credit operations reported by financial institutions authorized to operate in rural credit. Depending on the date of consultation in Sicor, variations in the magnitude of the data available over the thirty days following the last month of the period considered may be observed.