Agricultural finance

Bank loans. Bank loans to non-financial corporations in agriculture, forestry and fishing rose from BGN 1.06 billion at the end of 2010 to BGN 3.10 billion at the end of 2024 and fell to BGN 3.02 billion at the end of 2025, about US$1.82 billion¹²³. The number of loans rose from 6,632 in 2010 to 14,417 in 2025, and the average loan to agriculture was BGN 209 thousand in December 2025, against BGN 341 thousand for all non-financial corporations (own calculation)². Agriculture's share of bank loans to non-financial corporations increased from 3.3% in 2010 to between 6.3% and 6.8% in 2017–2024 and fell to 5.6% in 2025, when loans to all companies grew by 9.9% and loans to agriculture fell by 2.7% (own calculation)¹². Agriculture ranked sixth among economic activities by loan stock in December 2025, after trade, manufacturing, real estate, energy supply and construction².

Coverage. The BNB series covers loans and repos of banks to resident non-financial corporations. Loans to households and NPISHs, BGN 56.1 billion at the end of 2025, were published as one total without a breakdown by economic activity². The classification of activities changed from NACE Rev. 2 to NACE Rev. 2.1 in 2025. The BNB revises earlier quarters between editions of its time series, and the edition with data to December 2025 revised the breakdown by activity for June to December 2023 and states that the data for September 2025 are revised¹.

Currency and the euro changeover. At the end of 2025, 93.9% of bank loans to agriculture were denominated in leva and 6.1% in euro, overdrafts made up 44.1% of the stock and loans of over five years 39.1% (own calculations)². The Bulgarian National Bank introduced a currency board on 1 July 1997, pegging the lev to the Deutsche Mark and from 1 January 1999 to the euro at BGN 1.95583 per euro⁴. On 8 July 2025 the Council of the European Union approved Bulgaria's accession to the euro area on 1 January 2026 at the same conversion rate⁵. From 2026 the BNB publishes these loan statistics in EUR thousand with new loan-size categories and keeps the data to December 2025, including all data in leva, as historical series⁶. At the end of June 2026 bank loans to companies in agriculture, forestry and fishing were EUR 1,557.4 million, about US$1.81 billion at the ECB reference rate of 31 August 2026, on 14,750 loans, all in euro. They made up 5.4% of bank loans to non-financial corporations (own calculations)⁷⁸. In euro terms the stock was 0.9% higher than at the end of 2025, when BGN 3,019.7 million equalled EUR 1,543.9 million at BGN 1.95583 per euro (own calculation)²⁵. BNB loan figures for 2025 and earlier are in BGN as published. Converted at the IMF year-end rates, the stock was US$719 million in 2010 and US$1.82 billion in 2025. In 2025 it rose by 10.1% in dollars and fell by 2.7% in leva, and the year-end rate moved from BGN 1.8826 to BGN 1.6636 per US$ (own conversion)³.

The BNB supervisory data available in October 2026 gave no breakdown of non-performing loans by economic activity, so no ratio is available for agriculture¹¹. In the banking system, non-performing loans and advances to non-financial corporations were 4.35% of gross loans at the end of 2025, against 5.17% at the end of 2023, and the ratio for all loans and advances fell from 3.63% to 2.72% over the same period (own calculations)²¹¹¹. Non-performing exposures are those unlikely to be paid or more than 90 days past due¹¹.

The MFI interest rate statistics that the BNB compiles for the ECB gave no rate for loans to agriculture in October 2026⁹. New loans to non-financial corporations in leva, other than overdrafts and revolving loans, carried an average rate of 2.39% in December 2021, 4.55% in December 2023 and 4.09% in December 2025, the last month before the euro changeover⁹. Rates on new euro loans to companies in Bulgaria, other than overdrafts and revolving loans, were 4.60% in December 2025 and 4.36% in August 2026, against 3.50% and 3.63% in the euro area⁹¹². The ECB's composite cost of borrowing for companies, published for Bulgaria from January 2026, ranged from 3.86% to 4.15% in January–August 2026, against 3.51% to 3.80% in the euro area¹³. Domestic credit to the private sector fell from 68.2% of GDP in 2010 to 44.7% in 2022 and was 47.1% in 2024¹⁹.

State Fund Agriculture. Under the rules of the State Fund Agriculture (SFA), the paying agency, its Management Board sets each year the rate on loans that the Fund grants directly to farmers, at no less than the reference rate set by the European Commission²². The rate on direct investment loans was 2.5% in 2022, 3% in 2023, 5.91% in 2024 and 4.75% in 2025, and for 2026 the Board set it at the reference rate plus one percentage point, when the reference rate was 3.19% (rate in force on 1 January 2026)^2324182214. On 1 October 2026 the Board cut the rate on new direct loans to the reference rate (3.19% from 1 January 2026 and 3.71% from 1 July 2026, own calculation from the Commission base rate plus 100 basis points)¹⁶, citing a lasting downward trend in farmers' demand for credit, and amended the scheme for approved CAP Strategic Plan investment projects to lend up to 90% of the grant due, up to EUR 900,000 per applicant¹⁵²⁵. The SFA budgeted BGN 90 million for investment credits in 2024 and in 2025²⁴¹⁸. The beekeeping credit scheme financed 222 loans for BGN 1.06 million in 2021 and 94 loans for BGN 0.58 million in 2024, and the general investment scheme financed one loan of BGN 49,500 in 2021²⁶¹⁸. Short-term credits totalled BGN 1.47 million in 2021 and BGN 0.13 million in 2022, and the Board decided no new short-term credits in 2023²⁶²³²⁴.

Guarantees. The National Guarantee Fund (NGF), part of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) group, has run guarantee programmes with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food since 2013, and by October 2025 it had guaranteed loans of over BGN 566 million to 1,200 companies in agriculture, forestry and fishing²⁷¹⁷. Under an agreement of December 2011 the ministry provided BGN 236.9 million for a guarantee scheme under the Rural Development Programme 2007–2013, of which the NGF returned BGN 154.6 million in 2015 and BGN 21.9 million in 2020. BGN 50 million from that scheme funded a 2016–2018 scheme, whose agreements with eight banks were annexed to allow new loans until the end of 2027²⁸. The NGF PRSR 2026 programme has a portfolio limit of EUR 200 million and covers up to 80% of each loan, up to EUR 1.5 million per borrower, for small and medium-sized enterprises in agriculture, forestry and fishing or with approved rural development projects, with loans included until the end of 2029²⁹³⁰. The act amending the 2026 interim budget law, published in State Gazette No 30 of 27 March 2026, amended Article 16(3) of the BDB Act and extended NGF guarantee cover of up to 80% to guarantee schemes under the CAP Strategic Plan 2023–2027²⁸.

Financial instruments and development banks. In October 2026 the Fund of Funds, which manages financial instruments of EU programmes in Bulgaria, listed a financial instrument of risk-sharing loans and guarantees for fisheries and aquaculture and no instrument under the CAP Strategic Plan³¹³². The EIB Group reported financing for sustainable agriculture in Bulgaria in 2023, including EUR 50 million for a grain terminal at the port of Varna and a EUR 35 million loan to Agria Group Holding for a sunflower oil plant, and signed a EUR 175 million loan with the BDB for small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-caps³³. Its factsheet for 2025 reports EUR 646 million of financing in Bulgaria and does not mention agriculture³⁴.

The SFA co-financed insurance premiums for crop production under a state aid scheme, paying BGN 0.90 million to 357 farmers in 2020, BGN 2.01 million to 552 farmers in 2021, BGN 1.83 million to 547 farmers in 2022, BGN 0.88 million to 246 farmers in 2023 and BGN 3.03 million to 678 farmers in 2024^3926232418. In 2024 the aid was capped at BGN 420 per hectare for fruit, vegetables, tobacco and essential oil and medicinal crops, BGN 1,260 for greenhouses and BGN 54 for cereals and oilseeds⁴⁰. In March 2025 the ministry opened the first intake under the CAP Strategic Plan intervention for insurance premiums, with a budget of EUR 10 million, aid of up to 70% of the premium and a cap of BGN 75.6 per hectare for cereals and oilseeds on the first 1,000 hectares⁴¹. A separate wine-sector intervention, which covers up to 80% of premium costs, paid BGN 405,197 under 46 contracts for harvest insurance in 2024¹⁸. The Financial Supervision Commission's non-life statistics for 2025 follow Solvency II lines of business and do not show agricultural insurance premiums or claims separately⁴². Total state aid to agriculture was BGN 976.6 million in 2024, about US$540 million at the 2024 average rate (own calculation)¹⁸³, of which BGN 653.1 million was liquidity aid under the EU Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework¹⁸.

Companies specialised in lending held loan claims of BGN 7.07 billion in June 2025, of which BGN 4.88 billion on households and NPISHs and BGN 1.81 billion on non-financial corporations, and the BNB published no breakdown of these loans by economic activity⁴⁵. Elana Agrocredit, a non-bank financial institution set up in 2012 to lease agricultural land to farmers, had a portfolio of EUR 30.7 million in December 2022, and in March 2023 the EBRD approved a loan of up to EUR 10 million to it under its Resilience and Livelihoods Framework, to increase lending to farmers affected directly or indirectly by the war³⁸. BDB Leasing launched a financial lease for the purchase of agricultural land in the first quarter of 2025²⁸. The BNB register of financial institutions listed 26 mutual-aid credit cooperatives of private farmers in July 2025, all entered in 2010–2013⁴⁶. Under its published programme terms, which carry no date, the BDB lends to such cooperatives for on-lending to their farmer members, with a programme budget of up to BGN 15 million, loans of up to BGN 3 million and a rate of six-month EURIBOR plus 2.5 percentage points³⁵. In 2024, 84.7% of adults had an account and 14.0% had borrowed from a formal financial institution, against 26.4% in 2021, with 11.4% in rural areas²⁰.