March 29, 2019 – Today took place the coordinating meeting on the “Albanian Agribusiness & Tourism Support Program” – AATSF, a project financed and developed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and with the support of the Albanian Government.
The purpose of this Program is to motivate Albanian financial institutions to support a vital sector of the Albanian economy with largely untapped potential, such as agriculture and agribusiness. This assistance is provided through financial support and technical assistance.
Present at this meeting, the Minister of Finance and Economy, Mrs. Anila Denaj, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Blendi Çuçi, Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in Albania, Deputy Director of the AATSF Project, Mrs. Adela Leka, officials and experts of agriculture, as well as representatives of financial institutions, unanimously expressed their conviction that agriculture, as a sector with a significant weight in the GDP of the country, should be subsidized and supported to the maximum.
The meeting was followed by the signing of the cooperation agreement between EBRD and Raiffeisen Bank. This second tier bank is added to other financial institutions partnering in the AATSF program such as OTP Bank, ProCredit Bank, Intesa SanPaolo Bank, which also provide greater support to the country’s agricultural sector.
This support program for farmers in particular and agribusiness as a whole enables soft loans through the guarantee of a significant part of the collateral by the Albanian Government and the EBRD. Institutions benefit from a first coverage of the risk of losses made available to them by the Albanian Government. The total amount made available to the agribusiness sector with the support of the EBRD reaches a total value of 180 million euros.
The final beneficiaries of AATSF are farmers, entrepreneurs and companies that are engaged in the production and processing of agricultural products, the production and trade of agricultural equipment, logistics, agribusiness service providers, wholesalers and retailers.
Agribusinesses can also benefit from the EBRD’s Small Business Advisory (ASB) program, an EBRD-supported program that provides consultancy on strategy development, marketing, technical restructuring and other areas of institutional development from international experts and local.