By Osmel Ramirez Alvarez

HAVANA Occasions – As quickly as I Take into confacetration BANDEC (Cuba’s Credit rating and Commerce Financial institution), The primary adjective that Includes thoughts is “hurdles”. Constructive enough, this banking institution is synonymous with impediments, negativity, delays in mortgage disbursements and little buyer satisfaction. A minimal of When it Includes agricultural buyers.

It is the Cuban bank Responsible for monetary transactions and mortgages Inside the agriculture system, which was Alleged to get changed Finally by the already introduced Financial institution of Agricultural Enchancment. Neverthemuch less, it reprimarys unknown when It is going to open its doorways, And the method disconnected It is going to be from BANDEC.

I even have been a member of a cooperative for 12 yrs, and in all of this time, I’ve by no means seen agricultural mortgages disbursed on time and rightly. Never! With out exaggerating. For event, most mortgages are for tobacco farming, which Ought to be paid out in August So as that farmers can use this money To start to pay for plowing the land that month, As a Outcome of the sowing season starts on October Tenth.

It’s furtherly unusual To discover a farmer who handles to pay For his or her seedlings in October with money from these mortgages. They discover themselves pressured to ask For An further mortgage from third halfies which They will then Repay with the bank mortgage when it does finally Find your self to be out tright here, or To Wind up to be indebted to the seedlings’ farmer or the cooperative.

All by way of member assemblies On the cooperative in October, November, December and even in January, A pair of of the heated factors on the agfinisha is The drawback with late tobacco mortgages. This occurs yr after yr. We will’t even change over to a much less incompetent bank beset off in a centrally deliberate financial system That is all Tright here’s, Tright here’s not a selection.

Why does this happen? What excuses do they muster?

Usually, the excuse is that “the mortgages committee hasn’t met but.” However this committee is made up Of people working at The exact similar bank, They typically Want to be meeting every week. From what I’ve been seeing In any case these yrs, I confacetr this occurs As a Outcome of of:

• Extreme legal guidelines that Find your self to be an impediment.
• Tright here Might be Little or no room for Tailored selections to be made For patrons. They don’t work with shopper notion, beset off In the event that they’re notionworthy, They Want to be dealing with their enterprise without impediments; however, everyphysique finishs up struggling As a Outcome of of suspicions that defaulters convey upon us.
• Extreme warning Inside the face of small risks: the Overwhelming majority of agricultural mortgages, On the official greenback price And a lot extra so with the informal price, Might be confacetred microcredits, That are dealt with with Much extra flexibility and velocity in completely different parts of the world, but right here They’re dealt with with extra rigor as if they have been million-greenback bonds belonging to the nationwide treasury.

Other factors linked to agricultural bank mortgages that furtherly hinder manufacturing, are:

• Farmers can’t solicit the mortgage immediately, solely the cooperative can Obtain this Inside their identify, which forces them To Wind up to be members.
• Farmers don’t acquire money costs, Afacet from a Only a few exceptions when it is to pay guide labor. They even divide this cost, And also you solely handle to have All of the money a month after the work has been carried out.
• The biggest sum is to pay for items and providers with authorized state entities thOn the bank has registered earlier thanhand, without room to improvise. Do you have to Find your self pressured To barter with completely differents, You will Have The power to’t use the mortgage.

Some private examples might paint you a clearer picture. This yr, I dealt with to register to work on a small plot of tobacco for export, 0.5 hectares (In The Prolonged time period I solely dealt with to get the assets needed to plant 0.25 hectares). Understanding that mortgages with BANDEC are a headache, I Looked for “frifinishly” private funding for the manufacturing facet of factors.

Neverthemuch less, As a Outcome of the state-led agency is the one promoting currents, I made A selection that It’d be extra possible to get a mortgage for “the overlaying”, which is the safety we use for crops with mosquito nets hanging from a wire and picket physique. Simply 18,000 pesos, some 750 USD On the official commerce price, and solely 300 USD on The road. 

My mortgage nonethemuch less hadn’t been accredited in October! I went to see the bank clerk And that i gave him a headful of properly-based arguments. I informed him that if I had by no means had factors paying bank mortgages earlier than, why was it taking them so long and wright here wAs a Outcome of their exporting thoughtsset, As quickly as they’re sabotaging tobacco manufacturing by delaying mortgage payouts.

Dozens of farmers have been in The identical place, Neverthemuch less the strain I Positioned on the bank had a positive Outcome And that i used to be In a place to get the payout in Decrease than Every week. Neverthemuch less, when I went To buy my currents, tright here was no extra wooden or wire out tright here As a Outcome of of shortages disaster this yr. Subsequently, the damage was already carried out and the fault belongs to BANDEC.

So, I Desired to Search out out one factor with completely different farmers who have been Not planting and had this safety supplies mendacity round. I used A pair of of The money I acquired to plant, and half To buy the netting from these farmers. As quickly as I requested for a money cost for my mortgage On the bank, they informed me thOn they didn’t have a Stpricegy of paying it to me in money, that I could solely take it out Inside the established method.

After a quantity of weeks of coming and going to the bank, and asking whether or not this was The biggest Method to be “proactive” and coopeprice with the nationwide financial system and so on., and asking for paperwork On the tobacco agency and from farmers who purchased me assets, to cosign my software, they decided To current me my mortgage. All of this amid the planting season, Dealing with excessive work And a lot of extra factors, with no completely different selection but to delegate planting duties to completely differents and compromising effectiveness and effectivity.

However extremely! On the final minute, the bank clerk met Collectively with his superior and decided thOn That they had To place the cooperative as A right intime periodediary amongst People who purchased me the suppliess, which delayed the disbursement ancompletely different complete week and it value me A ten% fee for The fictional sale they gave me. So the calm me exploded! That was my restrict, I informed them no, that I might Search for a mortgage shark earlier than negotiating with BANDEC.

If solely the promised bank of agricultural development comes without BANDEC’s impediment-making, “hurdle-creating” thoughtsset. However tright here’s no set off to have good expectations beset off, wright hereas The federal authorities says it’s making an try to deal with the hurdles in our path, the system seems to create them out of behavior, as if it have been an inevitable consequence of the state centered and deliberate mannequin.

Study extra from Osmel Ramirez right here.