Financial support for the agricultural sector in Kyrgyzstan: a stakeholder workshop on “Value Chain Agro Finance”

On 4 July, 2023, a roundtable discussion on the “Value Chain Agro Finance” project was held, in Bishkek.

The event was attended by 26 representatives of Kyrgyzstan’s agribusiness sector actively contributing to the development of the sector: farmers, representatives of agro clusters, business associations, processing companies, local agricultural advisory organizations, international donors of the project and government agencies.

“For the success of agriculture in Kyrgyzstan it is necessary to enter international markets, but our products must meet all international standards, so we need to consolidate all market players into one chain and build it correctly. So we need to consolidate value chain agro finance (VCAF) participants to achieve these standards and strengthen their interaction in the VCAF.

 

At the moment, our farmers are constantly facing sales problems and this situation is only getting worse every year. The global market requires high standards and Kyrgyz companies need to meet them. For this purpose, it is very important to develop a value chain and projects like this are very good to give all the necessary tools: knowledge, technology, financial resources“, says Tilek Toktogaziev, Chairman of the Association of Berry Growers of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Participants jointly discussed the methodology for selecting the agro value chains that will be supported by the project. During the roundtable, they assessed in groups the selection criteria, bottlenecks in the value chains, and possible solutions to identified problems. Following the discussions, the participants expressed their approval of the selection criteria and for the selected value chains for further support of the project.

The “Value Chain Agro Finance” project was launched on 25 April 2023 with a total budget of 37 million Euro. The project aims to strengthen existing agricultural value chains in the Kyrgyz Republic by supporting the adoption of best agricultural practices, competitive post-harvest handling methods and access to long-term agricultural investment loans in local currency for small and medium-sized agro-industrial enterprises.

The total budget of the project is 37 million euros and is provided by the European Union, the European Investment Bank and the German Development Bank (KFW).

European Union funds in the amount of 5 million euros of the total project budget are allocated to support the agricultural finance sector and enable farmers and agribusinesses to upgrade equipment and apply modern technology in their operations.  The funds for lending to farmers, processors and other value-chain participants, are provided by the European Investment Bank and the German Development Bank (KFW) in the total amount of 31 million euros.

The project is implemented by AFC Agriculture and Finance Consultants  in consortium with CAIConsulting  with the support and active participation of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Agriculture of the Kyrgyz Republic.