QURGHON TEPPA, August 28, Asia-Plus — Managers of the branch of open joint-stock company (OJSC) Agroinvestbonk in Qurghon Teppa are concerned over the possible non-repayment of cotton loans this year.
Bad weather conditions may seriously affect this year’s cotton-harvesting campaign and farmers will fail to repay loans taken from the bank, the head of Agroinvestbonk’s branch in Qurghon Teppa Jalil Tavakkalov said told Asia-Plus Friday afternoon.
He added that the low rate of repayment of last year’s loans also evoked serious concern. According to him, Agroinvestbonk last year provided 29.8 million somoni (including a 16.8 million somoni government credit) in loans to local farms and as of August 21, 2009, they repaid only 9.1 million somoni. “The loan arrears include 10.5 million somoni of the banks’ own funds and 10.2 million somoni of the state funds,” Tavakkalov said.
He said that this year, the branch has concluded loan agreements for a total amount of 13.6 million with 285 local farming units.
Tavakkalov noted that some farm managers could not use provided loans properly. “Last year, all farming units in the area had opportunities to repay their debts,” said he, “Farmers had good harvests and farming units would have enough funds to pay off loans. However, they did not do that for unknown reasons.”
Founded in 1992, Agroinvestbonk, with headquarters in Dushanbe, has main branches in Khorog, Khujand, Kulob and Qurghon Teppa and 61 other branches across the republic.
