We welcomed the announcement of the Future Growth Scheme which was unveiled by Ministers Heather Humphreys, Michael Creed and Paschal Donohoe yesterday.
Noreen Lacey, Business Development Manager at Ifac said, “We would urge farmers and agri-businesses to use the next three weeks to start preparing proposals for long term capital investment. It is a really good opportunity for young or smaller farmers with loan amounts from €50,000 up to €3m over 10 years available.
With the uncertainty of Brexit this is a great boost to support strategic long term investment with unsecured loans of up to €500k available to support farmers where available security is limited and at competitive interest rates. The next couple of months and potentially years will have a detrimental effect on the Irish agri-business sector and this is a step in the right direction to protecting a major sector in Irish business. ”
The funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is €25million. Agri-businesses and farmers will be able to apply for loan eligibility through the SBCI from April 17th.