BAAC to lend Bt72 bn to SMEs
THE BANK for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) believes it will be able to provide Bt72 billion worth of special loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) under the “One Tambon, One Agriculture” programme by March 31 next year.
BAAC executive vice president Predermchai Jansena told a news conference that the bank had already approved loans worth Bt12.5 billion under the programme as of May 31 after its launch in February. The funding went to 2,701 agriculture SMEs in 2,701 tambon.
“When the project is complete on March 31, 2017, it will cover 7,305 tambon,” he said.
The loans charge a special interest rate of 4 per cent for the first seven years. The Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation (TCG) guarantees the loans in case farmers do not have sufficient assets to qualify for a loan.
TCG president Nitid Manoonporn said the corporation had already guaranteed Bt2.7 billion worth of loans for agriculture SMEs, Bt1.6 billion of the total approved between January 1 and May 31.
“We target guaranteeing at least Bt5 billion worth of loans under this project by the end of this year,” he said.
In total, the TCG targets guarantees for at least Bt85 billion in lending this year, he added.
Phairot Pitipantarat, owner of Suan La Mai, an eco-tourist enterprise in Rayong province, said his business got a loan from the BAAC worth Bt5 million under the One Tambon, One Agriculture project. The money was used to buy fruits from farmers to sell to tourists visiting his farm under its “Fruits Buffet” campaign that started on April 27 and will run until August 14.
“Our farm cannot produce enough fruits to satisfy the demand of our customers, so we opened the opportunity for other farms nearby to sell their products to us.
We spend an average of Bt3 million every week to buy fruits from farmers,” he said.
Needing cash to buy these fruits, Phairot applied for a Bt5-million loan from the BAAC guaranteed |by the TCG when his assets fell |short of what was needed to borrow from a commercial bank.
Normally, Suan La Mai buys fruits from 53 farmers in Rayong province worth a total of Bt11 million a year. This year, Phairot forecasts a fruit-purchase budget of at least Bt15 million, as the Fruits Buffet campaign is predicted to double the number of tourists to 150,000 from last year’s figure.
Pradermchai said: “We provided a loan to Suan La Mai because the business has potential under the new model to turn traditional farmers into eco-tourist farmers, and Suan La Mai also creates jobs for farmers located nearby.”
