KUALA LUMPUR – Agrobank’s Keluarga Malaysia Agrofood Financing Fund (DPAKM) will be distributing its RM800 million allocation in accordance with the needs of the main food industry players.
The president and chief executive officer of Agrobank, Tengku Ahmad Badli Shah Raja Hussin, stated that the DPAKM programme will offer financing up to RM5 million to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and producers of food products like poultry, ruminants, and vegetable crops.
He said that the programme is offering a competitive financing period where the SMEs are able to loan for a period of up to 8.5 years at a profit rate of 3%.
“Agrobank will automatically grant a moratorium for the first six months, at a 0% profit rate. Customers will only be charged 3% from the seventh month of financing onwards,” he explained.
Tengku Ahmad Badli added that the bank is confident this DPAKM programme would be able to satisfy the current needs and also gradually improve the country’s food security status.
Additionally, he said that the Cabinet has agreed to implement the programme in order to ensure the continuity of the food production activities in Malaysia, especially those involving the eight major food commodities such as chicken, beef/buffalo, eggs, milk, fresh fish, fruits, vegetables and rice.
Our of the RM800 million allocated for the DPAKM, about RM300 million has been earmarked for the producers of poultry while ruminant (cattle and goats) producers and vegetable crops producers would each get RM200 million and RM100 million.
Another RM100 million has been set aside for the micro-entrepreneurs with RM50 million set for new micro-entrepreneurs and RM50 million for the young entrepreneurs.
Tengku Ahmad Badli also mentioned that in 2021, Agrobank launched its Strategic Business Plan (SBP) 2021-2025. The plan covers the short term and long term strategic development of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry for the agro-food sector. This was as stipulated by the most current Malaysia Agro-Food policy.
He explained that Agrobank’s short term efforts are focused on supporting Malaysia’s food security agenda through providing financial support directly in strategic agricultural sub-sectors including livestock, poultry, and vegetable enterprises.
For the long term efforts, he said that the bank is committed to improving financial literacy among the unserved and underserved communities via free monitoring and provide programmes on business knowledge as well as financial management.
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