Some 2,000 rice farmers will benefit from a $50 million financial program

Approximately 2,000 rice farmers will benefit from a $50 million financial program promoted by the Ministry of Agricultural Development (Mida) and the National Bank.

The Mida minister, Augusto Valderrama, explained that it is an agreement reached by both entities with the aim of speeding up the payment of the subsidy per quintal of rice, which currently takes between 3 to 4 months.

He explained that through this agreement, “as soon as the rice producers receive the Mida certification that they are creditors of the subsidy, they will not have to wait the 4 months or generally 3 that it takes, and immediately having the certification from the Ministry they approach the branch of the corresponding province of the National Bank and within 24 hours the National Bank puts at your disposal the money that the Government should give you as a subsidy and the Government, through the Ministry with the budget item, then enters into responsibility with the National Bank and frees the producers from all responsibility.

This transaction, called “factoring”, is a procedure by which a bank or a specialized financial entity buys the accounts receivable of a company, assuming the purchasing entity the risk of collection.

The procedures must be presented before June 30 of this year and the discount will be 48 cents for each collection procedure of B/. 9.50 per quintal of wet and dirty rice delivered to the mills, this represents a discount rate of 5% that would be charged by the National Bank of Panama, which includes the 1% of the FECI, required by law.