By rdnewsNOW staff

Alberta increasing AFSC borrowing limit

Feb 25, 2021 | 10:52 AM

RED DEER, Alta. – Agriculture and Forestry Minister Devin Dreeshen says the overall borrowing limit for Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) will increase from $2.8 billion to $3.6 billion by 2024 to make sure Alberta farmers, ranchers and food production have reliable access to capital.

“AFSC’s improved lending ability will help us meet our value-added investment attraction goal of $1.4 billion for agriculture and food production in Alberta over the next 4 years – with a target of 2,000 new agriculture jobs,” Dreeshen said Tuesday.

“Since we set those targets last fall, we’ve already achieved $527 million in new investment and created more than 981 new jobs in Alberta.”

Dreeshen says the province is also doubling the individual lending limit from $15 million to $30 million from AFSC to help better support larger agriculture deals in the province.

AFSC offers lending support for food production through the Agribusiness Loan Program as well as loans for primary agriculture producers: the Next Generation Loan Program, Developing Producer Loan Program, Alberta Producer Loan Program, and the Revolving Loan Program.

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The borrowing limit is a funding cap set by government for the entire AFSC lending program, and we’re raising this limit to attract investments to further economic diversification and support growth in agriculture and food production.

“We’re also reducing red-tape by making it quicker and easier for clients to access loans from AFSC,” Dreeshen noted.

“Their quick loan process approves loans up to $150,000 in less than a day, and they’ve reduced average loan approval turnaround time by a day, meaning most loans are approved in under a week. AFSC has also improved loan renewals, with automatic renewal for loans in good standing and a new, client-friendly process for loan payment deferral when needed. Simple modernizations like accepting electronic client signatures add convenience to the process as well.”