The Alberta government has increased the amount of money available through the Feeder Association Loan Guarantee Program.
Agriculture Minister Nate Horner says that they’ve raised the overall loan guarantee for producers from $100 million to $150 million.
“We’d fully used up and filled the $100 million guarantee so it was fairly time sensitive. We had to move or they were gonna have to quit bringing in new clients and participants. That speaks to the demand that’s out there. It’s a great tool for the province to help support producers, especially young producers.”
Horner says there’s a couple of reasons why they’ve increased the amount of money available.
“There’s kind of a capital crunch happening in the world, we’re seeing rising interest rates and it may be a tougher environment at local retail banks, but the need to increase this has been in the price of cattle. If you look back to 2011 or pre-2014, cattle have almost doubled in a lot of regards. It takes more money to buy the same amount.”
Horner says this increase will improve producers’ access to capital so they can grow their businesses and meet the demands of today’s marketplace
Our full interview with Horner can be heard below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
