Byrne welcomes Money for Agri-Food Loan Scheme

Joe Byrne, SDLP MLA for West Tyrone, yesterday welcomed the £10 million Financial Transactions fund to the agri-food loan Scheme. This fund was announced by the Minister for Finance and Personnel Sammy Wilson in his Monitoring Round Statement for 2013-2014.

Tue 2nd July

However Mr Byrne questioned the Minister on whether the amount would be enough for the agri-food loan scheme and whether the banks were willing to back those who want to invest in capital buildings particularly for poultry and the pig meat sector.

Mr Byrne said:

“I welcome the fact that the Minister stated that this was an initial allocation and that this figure will be revisited once the scheme is progressing. This is one area that Northern Ireland can be competitive in and the opportunity to create jobs in this industry should not be missed due to lack of funding.

“As Vice Chair and member of the Agricultural Committee at the Assembly we met with some of the major banks and they were not forthcoming with regard to their lending policy. Therefore I also welcome the fact that Ministers Wilson and Foster along with agri-food representatives have met with the major banks to discuss bank lending to such schemes and loan security and that they were positive.

“We believe that we have given them the ability to give loans to farmers who want, for example, to put up chicken or pig houses or whatever. We are taking some of the risk; up to 40% of the loan for any chicken house will be made available through the loan scheme that we set up, and we will have the last call on it. So, the banks' risk is reduced there.

“For the agri-food industry, the banks will be vetting farmers who are going to be suppliers. Therefore, they will know that they are capable of doing the job and maybe even have a track record. Of course, the agri-food industry will bear some of the on-going cost, because it supplies the grain, etc. If a business fails, because you need to have the supply of chickens, there is always the possibility of taking over and running the thing themselves.

“The banks are actually getting quite a good deal out of this. If they were to baulk at this, I think we would then be able to say that, despite all the rhetoric about lending, we do not see that reality on the ground. I do not want to be critical because I want to get them on board with the scheme. They were more than happy to come to a meeting. They said that they would go away and work at this themselves and come back to us. I am hoping that, in the very near future, we will have some positive results from that.”