MOST would establish a bank for financing farmers, SDP claims that HBOR has all credit lines

The head of the negotiation team of MOST for agriculture, energy, and environmental protection, Ružica Vukovac, stated after three hours of negotiations at the SDP headquarters on Friday that the conversation was very constructive, which is also agreed upon by the SDP negotiator, Deputy Prime Minister Branko Grčić.

Vukovac told reporters that the impressions from the meeting were excellent and reported that they started with the agriculture sector, in which MOST believes the situation is very serious and is seeking the establishment of a special bank that would monitor and finance agricultural producers, as well as the redefinition of the system for allocating agricultural land. When asked how much today’s negotiations would influence MOST’s final decision, she replied that she is currently very satisfied and that she will present her impressions on Sunday at the meeting of the National Council of MOST. 

Branko Grčić also stated that the meeting focused primarily on agriculture.

– I believe it was an exceptionally quality discussion, and we heard what the key issues are. I think we agreed on something that is important for the upcoming period, which is support for the development of family farms, these small, very important units, and the adjustment of the entire supporting infrastructure, which is primarily financing, meaning ensuring liquidity, allocation of state subsidies with a slightly greater emphasis on smaller entities, i.e., family farms, and, which is very important, the allocation of agricultural land that must also be balanced between small and large, said Grčić.

 When it comes to MOST’s request to establish a special agricultural bank, Grčić stated that they noted in the discussions that the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) already has programs for monitoring agriculture, especially EU programs. 

– In addition, we also discussed the possibilities of new programs in some commercial banks where the state has a majority stake, so we will certainly discuss this with the management of those banks. What is very important is ensuring quality, thus cheap financing, and what is even more important in agriculture, due to its seasonal nature, is the possibility of bridging that part of financing until the collection of products, i.e., their market realization at the time it occurs. This is a key problem for agriculture, and we have already done part of the work on this, and there are certainly even more possibilities.

He reported that in energy, MOST prefers energy sources and production facilities in which Croatia can ensure a larger share of domestic components, such as reversible power plants, hydroelectric plants, etc. He added that MOST and the coalition Croatia is Growing agreed on a large number of issues, but there are still some that need to be discussed in more depth, and when asked what specifically this concerns, he stated that MOST assesses that the existing program for the regulation of landfills and waste processing is technologically outdated.