BPI seen doubling agribusiness lending
MANILA, Philippines—Bank of the Philippine Islands aims to double the loans it is extending to agribusiness in five years to support the sector’s growth.
BPI executive vice president and corporate banking group head Alfonso L. Salcedo Jr. identified agribusiness as one of the major sectors that needed more funding.
BPI’s agri-related loans currently stand at about P10 billion, while its total corporate loan portfolio amounts to P350 billion, Salcedo said.
“We know the sectors with good market potential and agribusiness is one. I think it is one area that can really help the economy in a major way,” he said.
“We want to get into agribusiness in a focused way and you should see that by next year,” Salcedo added.
Salcedo noted the growing number of clients wanting to put up new businesses in the agriculture sector such as rubber and palm plantations.
BPI said it was planning to substantially increase lending to small and medium enterprise agribusiness companies by tapping a risk-sharing facility of International Finance Corp., which has been used in financing sustainable energy projects.
According to Salcedo, 70,000 of BPI’s 80,000 corporate loan clients are SMEs.
Earlier, National Economic and Development Authority Director Rosemarie Edillon said the country needed a more vibrant agribusiness sector to link the poor with the rest of the economy, given that most Filipinos living in poverty were in the agriculture sector.
Citing the latest official poverty statistics on basic sectors, the National Statistical Coordination Board said fishing sector reported the highest poverty incidence in the country in 2009 at 41.4 percent, followed by the farming sector at 36.7 percent.
