Agriculture, Banks, Financial Services, Latvia

According to her, various sub-sectors of agriculture have problems attracting bank financing because they are reluctant to trust farms in lending for investment projects. Each farm individually tries to address the relevant issue in negotiations with banks.

At the same time, Lejniece admitted that the Development Financial Institution Altum is relatively more welcoming to farmers, which slightly eases the situation. "We are thankful to at least have Altum, which is more understanding,'' she said.

Commenting on the impact of Covid-19 on the implementation of investment projects in pig farming, she said that the farms in the sector continue to implement investment projects, as many of them have attracted co-financing from European Union funds. Therefore, they cannot be halted altogether, otherwise there will be penalties.

At the same time, she added that farms are happy to use the opportunity to extend the deadlines for project implementation, if for some objective reasons it is not possible to implement them in time.