Agricultural finance

The sectoral data come from the credit register. The monetary statistics of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) do not break down bank credit by economic activity. The sectoral series come from the Central Credit Register, which records each lender's exposure of RON 20,000 or more to a borrower and reports the amount granted under the contract rather than the outstanding balance¹². On this basis, the register recorded RON 31,961 million of loans granted by credit institutions to borrowers in agriculture, forestry and fishing at the end of August 2026, about US$7.05 billion at the end-August exchange rate³⁴. The amount rose every year from RON 7,030 million at the end of 2010 to RON 31,958 million at the end of 2025, with growth of 8.4% in 2024 and 2.0% in 2025 (own calculation)³. Including commitments such as guarantees, the register recorded RON 33,432 million in August 2026, and the register's series of amounts owed by agricultural borrowers to banks stood at RON 25,267 million, a series that includes the unused part of credit lines and off-balance-sheet loans and is therefore not an outstanding loan balance either⁵⁶.

Agriculture's share of bank credit has declined since 2023. Agriculture accounted for 2.8% of all loans in the register in 2010, 5.0% in 2023 and 4.3% in August 2026. Excluding loans to individuals, its share rose from 4.3% in 2010 to a year-end peak of 8.2% in 2022 and was 6.8% in August 2026 (own calculation)³. On a different basis, the BNR's June 2026 Financial Stability Report puts agriculture at 8.2% of bank credit to non-financial companies, or RON 17.7 billion (reference date not stated in the report), of which 48.2% were treasury (working-capital) loans and 23.6% equipment loans⁷. Converted at year-end rates, the register amount grew from US$2.19 billion at the end of 2010 to US$7.36 billion at the end of 2025 (own calculation)³⁴. In 2015, when the leu weakened from 3.69 to 4.15 per dollar, the amount rose by 6.8% in lei and fell by 5.1% in dollars, and in 2025, when the leu strengthened from 4.78 to 4.34 per dollar, it rose by 2.0% in lei and 12.2% in dollars (own calculation)⁴. Domestic credit to the private sector was 22.1% of GDP in 2025, against 38.3% in 2010⁸.

Loan quality in agriculture deteriorated from October 2024 to March 2026. According to the BNR's June 2026 Financial Stability Report, 9.8% of bank loans to agricultural companies were non-performing at the end of March 2026, the highest ratio of any sector, against 9.0% in construction, 6.4% in industry and 5.6% for all non-financial companies. The agricultural ratio had been 2.7% in October 2024, and the BNR attributes the increase mainly to a 115% one-month rise in loans classed as unlikely to pay in December 2025, which reflected banks' expectations of weaker financial conditions in the sector⁷. The same report finds that the return on equity of agricultural firms fell to 9.6% in June 2025, about 2 percentage points less than a year earlier, making agriculture the second least profitable sector, that their debt reached 153% of equity and that they took 148 days on average to collect receivables, against 86 days for all non-financial companies. Agricultural companies generated 43% of the RON 1.8 billion of major payment incidents recorded between April 2025 and March 2026⁷.

The ratio for banks that are Romanian legal entities was 2.89% in August 2026. The non-performing loan ratio of banks that are Romanian legal entities under the EBA definition fell from 20.71% at the end of 2014 to 2.37% at the end of 2023 and was 2.89% in August 2026¹⁷². The BNR publishes no regular sectoral series, so the agricultural ratio is available only for the dates cited in its Financial Stability Reports⁷.

The policy rate has been 6.50% since August 2024. The BNR raised its monetary policy rate from 1.25% in January 2021 in eleven steps to 7.00% in January 2023, cut it to 6.75% in July 2024 and to 6.50% in August 2024, and kept it at 6.50% on 8 October 2026. Annual inflation had fallen to 6.17% in August 2026, from 10.42% in June¹²¹⁹. The three-month ROBOR was 7.57% at the end of 2022 and 5.84% at the end of August 2026²⁰. The reference index for consumer loans (IRCC) was 5.57% in the second quarter of 2026²¹. New loans to non-financial corporations carried an average rate of 8.49% in lei and 4.31% in euro in August 2026, against 4.58% and 2.69% in December 2021¹³¹⁴. In October 2026 the BNR did not publish interest rates by economic activity, so no rate for agricultural loans was available¹³.

The Rural Credit Guarantee Fund held RON 2.13 billion of guarantees at the end of 2025. The Rural Credit Guarantee Fund (FGCR) was set up in February 1994 following negotiations between the European Commission and the Romanian Government. It is a non-bank financial institution owned by CEC Bank (99.993% of the share capital at the end of 2025) and by the state through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR, 0.007%)²²²³. In 2025 it guaranteed up to 80% of loans to private borrowers and 100% of the advances that the Agency for the Financing of Rural Investments (AFIR) pays to public beneficiaries of EAFRD projects²². Its guarantee commitments on the public funds it administers for the ministry and under EU programmes were RON 2,134.9 million at the end of 2025, about US$492 million at the year-end rate (own calculation), down from RON 2,409.2 million at the end of 2024 and up from RON 1,466.6 million at the end of 2023²²⁴. Guarantees under the general source of Government Emergency Ordinance (OUG) 43/2013 accounted for RON 1,393.1 million, or RON 1,502.2 million including the separate source for beneficiaries of the national rural development programme under the same ordinance (own calculation), 74% of active guarantees covered production loans, and CEC Bank and Banca Transilvania held 69% of the active balance (own calculation)²².

Under OUG 43/2013 farmers may borrow against their direct payments. Under OUG 43/2013 lenders finance working capital against the certificate of the farmer's APIA payments, and the amounts due from APIA are usually assigned to the lender. In October 2026 FGCR guaranteed up to 80% of such loans, and its 'three times the subsidy' and 'five times the subsidy' products allowed loans of up to three or five times the financeable value of the certificate²⁴²⁵²⁶. The 'three times the subsidy' product was launched with CEC Bank on 22 July 2022²⁷. In October 2026 the National Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs (FNGCIMM), wholly owned by the state through the Ministry of Finance, also offered guarantees under OUG 43/2013 and on APIA certificates²⁸²⁹.

State-guaranteed balances halved in 2025. FGCR also administers guarantees in the name and on behalf of the state through the Ministry of Finance. Their outstanding balance fell from RON 5,560.2 million at the end of 2024 to RON 2,793.1 million at the end of 2025, about US$643 million at the year-end rate (own calculation), of which RON 1,549.6 million under the Rural Plus component of IMM PLUS (OUG 18/2024) and RON 1,080.8 million under the Rural Invest component of IMM INVEST PLUS (OUG 99/2022)²²⁴. The IMM Invest programme closed on 30 June 2024³⁰. The ministry's Creditul Fermierului scheme, approved by OUG 7/2024, combined interest grants with FGCR guarantees of up to 100% for primary producers and ran until 31 December 2024. At the end of 2025, 3,308 agreements were in force, covering RON 2,759.9 million of loans, about US$636 million at the end-2025 rate (own calculation), and RON 567.7 million of interest grants²²⁴. Calls on guarantees increased in 2025. FGCR analysed 218 payment claims worth RON 152.1 million, against 27 claims worth RON 19.4 million in 2024, and payments of RON 55.5 million were made, RON 43.8 million of them by the Ministry of Finance under state-aid programmes²². The BNR reports that the non-performing ratio of state-guaranteed loans to companies rose from 4.9% to 9.0% between September 2024 and September 2025 and that over 70% of guaranteed loans were treasury loans¹⁶.

EU instruments and the financing gap. The 2014–2020 Rural Development Programme used one EAFRD financial instrument, a portfolio risk-sharing loan instrument with EUR 93.88 million of programme contributions on data before 2022³¹. A fi-compass study estimated Romania's financing gap in agriculture at EUR 11.4 billion in 2022, about US$12.0 billion at the 2022 average rate (own calculation), the largest in the EU and equal to 89% of agricultural gross value added³²⁴.

The rural development programme paid 70% of eligible premiums in 2025. Subsidised crop, animal and plant insurance was financed in 2025 under sub-measure 17.1 of the 2014–2020 Rural Development Programme, managed by AFIR, which paid 70% of the eligible premium actually paid by the farmer. Premiums for production above the farmer's average output of recent years, and the extra premium for a deductible below 20%, were not subsidised. AFIR held the seventh annual application session in 2025³⁸³⁴. The programme planned EUR 178.9 million for Measure 17 'Risk management' in 2014, EUR 203.4 million in 2017, EUR 42.8 million in 2018, EUR 23.7 million in 2020 and EUR 71.9 million in 2023, when declared eligible expenditure had reached EUR 48.8 million³³. The CAP Strategic Plan for 2023–2027 allocates EUR 82.4 million of EAFRD funds to risk management tools (rounded to EUR 82 million in the Commission's factsheet), such as support for insurance premiums or compensation for production losses, complemented by 3% of the direct payments envelope³⁵³⁶. Premiums and claims of the agricultural insurance market are not shown in the official statistics that could be accessed in October 2026.

Non-bank lenders accounted for 38.1% of registered credit to agriculture, forestry and fishing in August 2026. The register recorded RON 19,695 million of loans granted (contract amounts, not outstanding balances) to agriculture, forestry and fishing by non-bank financial institutions, which include leasing companies such as UniCredit Leasing Corporation IFN³⁹, in August 2026, about US$4.34 billion at the end-August rate (own calculation)⁹⁴. Agriculture accounted for 19.5% of their loans, against 4.3% of bank loans, and non-bank lenders accounted for 38.1% of the combined amount, against 19.1% in 2010 (own calculation)⁹³. Loans of all non-bank financial institutions in the BNR General Register were RON 69.6 billion on their balance sheets in June 2026 (provisional), a different basis from the credit register².

EIB lending for agriculture, 2013–2025. The European Investment Bank lent Agricover Credit IFN, a specialised agricultural lender, EUR 20 million signed in 2016 and 2017 and EUR 15 million signed in 2020 and 2021, and on 12 December 2025 signed EUR 25 million under a third operation for micro-enterprises in agriculture and the bio-economy, for which EUR 50 million had been proposed^40414243. It lent UniCredit Leasing EUR 50 million in 2014 and EUR 120 million signed in 2019 and 2022 for SMEs and mid-caps in agriculture, industry and services, and financed part of the national co-financing of the rural development programmes, with EUR 300 million signed in 2013 and 2014 and EUR 450 million in 2018^44394546.

Rural account ownership was 67% in 2024. In 2024, 71.3% of adults had an account, 67% in rural areas against 81% in urban areas¹⁵¹⁶. In September 2025, 29% of agricultural companies reported frequent use of suppliers' credit, against 15% of all firms⁷. No official data were found on loans to agriculture by mutual aid houses (CAR) or credit cooperatives, or on agricultural mutual funds.