Agriculture: Ismea, at the forefront alongside companies in Tuscany

From non-repayable grants and low-interest mortgages for young people and women to credit guarantees, up to structured finance interventions for joint stock companies. Ismea is at the side of the entrepreneurs of Tuscany, in a moment of serious uncertainty like the one we are experiencing. After the Covid emergency, in fact, the Italian agri-food sector is once again grappling with a crisis situation, where new and further factors of geopolitical and economic instability linked to the war have suddenly been added to the continuing increase in raw materials and energy products. in progress. A picture that closely affects companies in the primary sector, burdened by unsustainable increases in all production inputs: from energy to feed, from fertilizers to fertilizers and which made it necessary again to activate extraordinary interventions by Brussels and the Italian government . As already done during the pandemic emergency with the measures to restore corporate liquidity such as the Agrarian bill and the Guarantee, Ismea is once again at the forefront alongside agricultural companies. The so-called “Ukrainian Crisis” decree of 21 March gave Ismea 20 million euros to assist, free of charge with its guarantee, in the renegotiation and restructuring of agricultural loans up to 25 years. This topic was discussed in Florence at the second appointment of the series of meetings in the area, promoted by Ismea to present the opportunities offered to Italian agricultural and agri-food companies. The appointment, organized in collaboration with the Agro-food, hunting and fishing Department of the Region, was attended by the councilor for agro-food and vice-president of the Tuscany Region Stefania Saccardi, the president Ismea Angelo Frascarelli, the general manager Ismea Maria Chiara Zaganelli and the Managing Authority of the Tuscan Rural Development Program Antonino Mario Melara. The Guarantee Fund on first demand is one of the tools of the integrated set of Ismea measures that accompany the company in its various phases: from the acquisition of the land capital to the development of the business, from access to credit and the capital market up to risk management. With “Più Impresa”, the Institute supports the investments of young people and women in agriculture, thanks to the disbursement of non-repayable grants and zero-rate mortgages, while with “Ismea Investe” the joint-stock companies active in the agri-food sector can benefit from subsidized loans and interventions in risk capital (equity and quasi-equity transactions, bond loans and participatory financial instruments). “With this appointment we were able to illustrate the important work that Ismea does, which I thank – said Saccardi – A work all the more important in an economic-financial scenario in which the credit market appears in general to be greatly downsized and even more rigid for the agricultural sector, which needs clarity on the measures implemented “.” Tuscany, the first Italian region for the production of flowers and plants and for farm activities – commented Maria Chiara Zaganelli, general manager of Ismea – has suffered more others have the economic impact of the first wave of Covid, taking into account both the elimination of tourist flows and the restrictions on ceremonies and holidays that have strongly affected the profitability of the horticultural sector. Like the response offered by Ismea during the liquidity crisis that marked the pandemic emergency, even today the Institute immediately took action both in monitoring the markets and prices, and in helping agricultural businesses through the Guarantee instruments ” .