Manitoba Pork Credit Corporation welcomed yesterday’s announcement by Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay, increasing the interest-free limit of the Advanced Payments Program from $100,000 to $250,000, at a time when producers are coming out of an extended period of tight margins.
“Hog farmers have faced incredibly tight margins over the last 18 months, with high feed and input costs that have threatened their bottom line,” said Cam Dahl, CEO of the Manitoba Pork Credit Corporation and Manitoba Pork’s general manager. “We are pleased to see the federal government recognize these challenges and act to provide producers with access to capital that can be used with less interest.”
The Advance Payments Program is a vehicle that provides producers across commodities with access to low-cost advances of up to $1 million, based on the value of their product. This announcement allows for the first $250,000 to be interest free, which will help hog farmers with cash flow and savings on interest they would have otherwise paid.
Last year, Manitoba Pork Credit Corporation borrowed over $21.2 million to producers across Western Canada.