The Banco do Brasil (Bank of Brazil – BB) will offer a credit line to expand forest plantation intended for industrial use in Brazil. The BB Forest program will include existing credit lines and new resources.
According to the BB’s vice-president of Agribusiness, Ricardo Conceição, the bank will lend US$ 84 million (R$ 225 million) over the next five years.
Producers, whether they be firms or families, will have a four to ten year grace period before repayment begins.
The bank will finance both the plantation of commercial forests and trees intended to form legal reserves, Conceição added.
Annual interest rates of 4% or 8.75% will be charged, depending upon the nature of the production unit.
The funds are already available at branches of the BB, according to Conceição, who announced the program yesterday, March 30, at an event sponsored by the Brazilian Association of Planted Forests to commemorate the 100th anniversary of silviculture in Brazil.
Translation: David Silberstein
Agência Brasil