The public banks of the Generalitat and the agro-industrial group Nufri reach an agreement to provide financing to their 100 associated farmers. The financial institution approves, for the first time, a loan to promote crop transformation to combat the consequences of climate change. The CEO announces that the ICF will make efforts to support farmers who want to promote a change of model that is more resistant to water scarcity and high temperatures.
The Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF) has reached an agreement with the agro-industrial group Nufri to finance with one million euros a varietal conversion in the Pla d'Urgell region so that its 100 associated farmers can adapt their crops to the drought and the rest of the consequences of the climate crisis. In this way, the public bank of the Generalitat de Catalunya approves, for the first time, an operation to promote the transformation of crops with the aim of adapting them to water scarcity, high temperatures and new climatic conditions.
"This does not end here, we will make efforts to support all those farmers in the country who want to start a change of model that faces climate change in the most effective and efficient way possible and, for this reason, we are committed to studying all the varietal conversion operations that come to us", said the CEO of the ICF, Vanessa Servera, during her visit this morning to one of the crops where the conversion is being implemented. The entity thus covers an urgent need for the Catalan primary sector at a time when it is seriously affected by drought, the climate crisis and rising prices.
The ICF funding will allow Nufri to replace the fruit trees on one of its farms with another variety with less water needs and more adapted to high temperatures. Since 2022, the group has been carrying out a varietal conversion on its farms to promote a new cultivation model that is more efficient and adapted to changes in consumer tastes. The investment financed by the public entity will make it possible to complete the third of the six phases of this process.
"The ICF is where the needs of our farmers are and, in fulfilment of our mission as a public bank, we offer the best possible conditions fully aware of the difficulties that the sector is experiencing", said the ICF CEO. For his part, Ignasi Argilés Figuerola, director of production and trade of the Nufri group, stressed that "the current climatic conditions are very different from those of a decade ago and, as farmers and the territory, we have to adapt to these new circumstances". "Thus, thanks to the conditions that the ICF provides to the sector, a new window of opportunities was generated," he added.
This is not the first time that the ICF has supported the farmers. In 2023, the public promotion bank financed 1,236 Catalan farmers and ranchers with a total of 77 million euros within the framework of the ICF Agroliquidity loan line.