Following the signing of an agreement between the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Sociedad Estatal de Caución Agraria (SAECA) to create a re-guarantee line that improves access to credits in the fishing and aquaculture sector.
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The loan will be valid for 20 years without interest and the maximum guaranteed capital limit will be 150 million euros.
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, highlights that the Government is putting this mechanism into operation to modernize the activity, facilitate generational change and maintain the leadership position of the fishing sector
The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, signed an agreement with the Sociedad Estatal de Caución Agraria (SAECA) in order to facilitate access to private financing for the fishing and aquaculture sectors in a firm commitment to its modernization to also facilitate generational change.
Through the agreement, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food gives SAECA a loan of 10 million euros aimed at creating a line to re-guarantee guarantees that facilitate access to credit for the fishing and aquaculture sector.
50% of the loan will be borne by the Ministry's budgets for 2021 and the remaining 50% will come from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which has an additional 89 million euros planned for investments in sustainability, research, innovation and digitization of the Spanish fishing sector . The duration of the loan will be 20 years and the maximum guaranteed capital limit has been set at 150 million euros.
Minister Luis Planas has highlighted the fishing vocation of Spain, which is the largest producer in the European Union and has a leading processing, canning and freezing industry. "Maintaining this leadership position", said the minister, "requires a modern, sustainable and value-generating business activity, and yet the Spanish fleet has an average age of 31 years that needs a renewal process.
"The Government", added Planas, "has been sensitive to the need to modernize the sector and has implemented this mechanism to facilitate access to credit in order to boost the fishing and aquaculture business activity." It is especially important at this time when, as the COVID-19 vaccination progresses successfully, the economy is recovering and opportunities are opening up for the sector.
Specifically, the main objectives pursued by the Ministry loan to SAECA consist of providing the companies in the fishing and aquaculture sector with the means to invest in improving conditions and job security; in the transition to energy efficiency; and in the competitiveness of the fishing activity through advances in digitization, innovation, traceability and transparency of the processes, as well as in the valorization of production through the search for new genres and presentations. ■