Piraeus Bank’s Agricultural Banking Division focuses strategically on the sustainable development of the primary sector, continually looking for solutions to cover its customers’ needs. Amongst its portfolio of integrated banking solutions for farmers, its Contract Farming Program is a modern initiative designed to support and strengthen agrifood from within.
Dedicated exclusively to the primary sector, the Agricultural Banking Division of Piraeus Bank focuses on delivering outstanding customer service, developing innovative and flexible financing tools to fully cover its clients’ needs, promoting the sector’s sustainable development, and strengthening cooperation, extroversion and generational renewal in the agricultural workforce.
Piraeus Bank’s main objective is to cover the liquidity and investment needs of young farmers
In 2022, in order to improve access and effective absorption of resources and the completion of its clientele investments, Piraeus Bank focused on financing viable investment projects that have or will be included in subsidized programs or are implemented with own resources. For this purpose, Piraeus Bank offers a full range of banking solutions—including flexible prefinancing loans equal to the value of the grants obtained under the respective programs—aiming to maximize the use of existing financial instruments for the benefit of its clients.
Having recognized the need for generational renewal in agriculture and in rural areas, Piraeus Bank offers a complete package of solutions and financial support for young farmers, aiming to cover their liquidity and investment needs. Indeed, in 2022, loans to young farmers accounted for more than 60% of the bank’s primary sector financing.
In the context of its ESG commitments, Piraeus Bank supports farmers wishing to invest in renewable energy generation, while it also prioritizes product innovation and improved banking products in order to cover current operating cash flows and meet financing needs, thus also contributing to the successful implementation of Greece’s National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP).
As part of its strategic commitment to support the agricultural sector, Piraeus Bank provides a wide range of specialized, high-added-value products and services to agricultural organizations and bodies as well as agricultural cooperatives and agricultural enterprises, including its innovative Contract Farming Program, which was first launched in 2013.
Using a range of customized financial instruments, the Contract Farming Program offers the required liquidity, at the appropriate time, at each stage of the value chain and in doing so helps create a new era of sustainable development for the agricultural sector and enhances the sector’s efficiency and extroversion. The program takes a holistic approach to the country’s agrifood sector’s value chain and contributes to the rationalization of the production costs of agricultural products, while at the same time strengthening relationships and promoting trust amongst the parties involved—producers, groups of producers, agricultural cooperatives and processing companies. In 2022, Contract Farming‘s impact on Greek agrifood was mutually beneficial for producers, processing/trading enterprises and agricultural cooperatives, as evidenced by the improvement in the sector’s financials.
To date, Piraeus Bank’s Contract Farming Program has provided liquidity to more than 420 longterm partnerships and helped over 11,000 producers, contributing to the creation of sustainable value chains and helping beneficiaries compete in international markets, all while adhering to the fundamental principles of sustainable development. Piraeus Bank remains a pioneer in Greece’s agricultural sector, demonstrating in practice its support to the primary sector of the economy and to the country’s agricultural community.