Poor management in the BDA concerns producers

Agricultural producers of the country have manifested their concern due to the poor management that is happening in the Bank of Agricultural Development (BDA), entity that is buying debt of friends to the Government in private banks at 0% of interest. One of these cases is that of the company Producción Agrícola Internacional S.A., which the BDA bought an agricultural debt for an amount of one million of Balboas which they kept with the Korea Exchange Bank. Rafael Ernesto Terán Dutari, one of the advisers of the Minister of Economy and Finance, Dulcidio de la Guardia, appears as Treasurer and Secretary In this company. Terán Dutari appears within the administration of President Juan Carlos Varela as Advisor I in the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), earning a monthly salary of B/.5,000. According to some members of the sector, due to this situation, the hardest hit has been against small producers, to whom this entity offers loans of no more than 25 thousand Balboas. In Maximino Díaz´ view, crop producer, this kind of practices within the BDA is not usual and if they are underway, it would be very unfortunate. He stressed that this State promotion bank should not lend itself to this situation, since it should only finance agricultural projects of rapid execution, for example, livestock, agricultural production and agro-export, among others. He added that the BDA should not purchase debt, since their main function is to promote the production at the national level. Diaz said that "politicking has never ended within the BDA, since that has happened during all governments, which with political influence, high officials have a quicker access to loans". He stressed that the loans of up to 25 thousand Balboas is a new policy which the BDA has established, specifically in its regional centers, and loan applications greater than this amount should go to the Committee on National Credit of this entity in Panama city.He added that if the purchase of balances at banks by this institution happens to be true, the agricultural sector would be harshly hit and, above all, small producers in the country. Meanwhile, Valentín Domínguez, President of the Association of Corn of Los Santos, said that if true, this type of situation should not happen within this institution. He added that the majority of the members of the agricultural sector of the country do not have access to loans for that amount of money (a million of Balboas) and that situations like this affect producers that see their access to these credits unfeasible. Meanwhile, Euclides Díaz, cattle raiser, said that limiting producers to loans of up to 25 thousand Balboas is very low for a sector in which production costs are very high. He stressed that currently, raising a head of cattle is rounding the price of 500 to 600 Balboas in the national market, and thus B/.25 thousand would allow them to buy only 30 heads of cattle. Panama America tried to of obtain the BDA´s version on the purchase of balances from private banks, but until the closing of this note, the entity had not responded our request.