UK Farmers Say Lending Has Been Squeezed

In his speech made at the economic forum on farming and food in Ireland, Mr. Seán O’Sullivan, chief executive of Cork Marts, one of the largest marts in Great Britain, claimed that UK banks are treating farmers unfairly. As Mr.O’Sullivan mentioned, lenders are not providing farmers with enough credit to buy new stock, and they also bounce farmers’ cheques despite the fact that banks earlier claimed they are open for doing business with UK farmers. Mr. O’Sullivan, however, claimed that Cork Marts has been experiencing serious problems associated with credit availability in the past 6-9 months, which means that the level of banks’ support to farmers is extremely low. Instead, UK lenders have squeezed credit for farmers. Mr. O’Sullivan is not the only one to complain about credit unavailability; he said that many other farmers mentioned they are unable to access funds needed to buy new stock. UK farmers are determined that the situation that is currently present in the banking sector is unfair as farmers are not to blame for the economic downturn and should not pay the price for what had happened. Farmers urge UK lenders to review their financial relations and to put in place a “real partnership deal” designed to boost credit flow to the British farming sector. Mr. O’Sullivan reminded lenders that a similar scheme was introduced in the 1980’s by banks and farming organisations. UK lenders, however, do not seem to be interested in the “real partnership deal”. As such, the AIB bank claimed that it is already open for doing business with small and medium-sized farmers, who have a good credit history and pass all banks’ affordability checks. The Postbank, in its turn, said that the bank will start lending to farmers (individuals and enterprises) in 2010, however, it will not be involved in large commercial lending.