UCPB extends P276 M loans to coco farmers in 9 months

MANILA, Philippines - UCPB-CIIF Finance and Development Corp. has extended loans to coconut farmers amounting to P276.55 million in the first nine months of 2015.

For the month of September alone, new loans hit P53.8 million.

UCPB-CIIF Finance president Edgardo Amistad said the loans financed alternative livelihood activities of coconut farmers such as cash crop cultivation, livestock raising, agricultural commodities trading and village-based processing of coconut by-products.

Since it started its development lending operation 21 years ago, UCPB-CIIF Finance has extended a total of P7.4 billion in loans to the rural economy, benefitting 390,223 coconut farmer households in the 63 coconut-growing provinces of the country.

“Given our high collection rate of 97 percent, we believe the coconut farmers are generating sufficient additional income from the livelihood projects we are financing not only to repay their loans but also to save and to improve their quality of life,” Amistad said.

The executive said the UCPB Group and the CIIF companies formed UCPB-CIIF Finance in late 1994 to engage in development lending to coconut farmers, who have difficulty tapping formal credit sources owing to their small size and the relatively higher risk of their micro-enterprises.

UCPB-CIIF Finance started with an initial capital of P175 million drawn from cash dividends declared by United Coconut Chemicals Inc., a CIIF company.

As the company’s operation grew, UCPB infused an additional capital of P100 million in December 1997, while the CIIF Oil Mills Group put in P700 million more in January 2003.

These brought the company’s total capital to P975 million. With prudent fund management, the level grew further to P1.17 billion as of end-2014.

It plans to broaden the base of coconut farmer-borrowers with access to affordable credit, and increase productivity through improved yields, good infrastructure, better technology, market linkage support, and  capability building.

Ultimately, UCPB-CIIF Finance hopes to give coconut farmers ownership and control of postharvest facilities; and provide them secondary or alternative sources of income.