ANP
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NOS News•today, 12:29
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Rabobank calls the granting of loans to farmers close to Natura 2000 areas “very unlikely”, because of the uncertainty about the future of those companies.
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In light of the expected interventions in vulnerable nature areas, lending money for an investment to these farms is not the right time, says Rabobank CEO Wiebe Draijer.
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“There are still good places where farmers can pass through and where you can help a farmer with investments and sustainability to make his business more sound for the next phase, but that is now very unlikely close to those nature reserves.”
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Emotion
The government’s focus on stopping businesses has brought farmers into great uncertainty, says Draijer about the farmers’ protests in recent months. “And that a feeling of injustice has arisen from that, from which a lot of the emotion can be explained.”
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Rabobank will also talk to nitrogen broker Remkes. According to Draijer, it is important to enter into discussions with various players in the chain about a solution that is broader than the cabinet’s original approach.
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“Where you’re going to look at opportunities in the region to place companies that want to move on to places where they can, and offer companies that want to quit a venerable way of quitting.”
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Other choices
At the beginning of July, Rabobank said in Fidelity that with the knowledge of now they would have acted differently in the past. The bank is by far the largest lender for farmers in the Netherlands and for many years it has largely financed the upscaling in livestock farming.
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“I think you have to see that a bit like I look at my own life,” says Draijer. “If you had known everything you know now, you probably would have made different choices in the past.”
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Insecurity
Rabobank made a profit of 1.6 billion euros in the first half of the year. Draijer calls it a solid result, but he sees a varying economic picture.
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On the one hand, the impact of corona is becoming smaller, but at the same time there are negative effects due to the uncertainty caused by the war in Ukraine. This is reflected in inflation, but also in the supply of products that is stalling, says Draijer.
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