Agro Bank Lending Profile

Bank Keshavarzi—the lender specializing in financing agribusiness—has doled out loans worth over 116 trillion rials ($3 billion) to agricultural sectors during the first tenure of President Hassan Rouhani (2013-17), the bank’s official website reported. Mechanization of agriculture accounted for the lion’s share of banking credits. The capital received by the sector exceeded 44 trillion rials ($1.15 billion), accounting for 37.8% of all bank loans. Khuzestan Province in southwest Iran took the largest portion of loans amounting to 3.6 trillion rials ($94.2 million). Mazandaran and Khorasan Razavi provinces received 2.9 trillion rials ($75.9 million) and 2.7 trillion rials ($70.6 million) of the credit. The next main reasons for extending the loans were “establishment of greenhouses “and “promoting aquaculture “.  The former with 29 trillion rials ($759.1 million) and the latter with 21 trillion rials ($549.7 million) accounted for 24.9% and 18% of the total loans. The lender has also provided 7,600 small- and medium-sized enterprises with 16 trillion rials ($418.8 million) worth of loans. The amount is over 30% of the total lending of the country’s banking system to SMEs.