Lending for seasonal fieldwork in Russia rises nearly 26% through March 7 - Agriculture Ministry

MOSCOW. March 13 (Interfax) - Key Russian banks that cooperate with the domestic agro-industry allocated 153 billion rubles to lend for seasonal fieldwork, an increase of 25.9% year-on-year, from the beginning of the agricultural season through March 7, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

Specifically, Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) allocated 85.1 billion rubles for the period versus 67.7 billion rubles the previous year, and Sberbank allocated 67.9 billion rubles against 53.8 billion rubles.

An Interfax source familiar with the Agriculture Ministry's data said that agro-industry enterprises and organizations received loans totaling nearly 1.159 trillion rubles for seasonal fieldwork in 2022, with Rosselkhozbank issuing 761.8 billion rubles and Sberbank issuing 397 billion rubles.

As previously reported, Rosselkhozbank allocated 609.7 billion rubles and Sberbank allocated 259.9 billion rubles for a total of 869.6 billion rubles in 2021.