The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a EUR 600 million loan to the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) to improve access to credit for small and medium-sized businesses in the Spanish farming and agrifood sectors. Under the agreement, ICO will match the EIB loan with an additional EUR 600 million, meaning that total financing of EUR 1 200 million will be made available.

The loans will serve to finance new projects and/or the working capital requirements of small and independent agrifood businesses.

This is the second operation mounted by the EIB and ICO to boost the farming sector. A first EUR 150 million loan was signed in September 2013, with ICO contributing the same amount. The EUR 300 million committed was fully disbursed and financed 5 374 projects.

With this new operation, the EIB is continuing to work together with ICO to finance small Spanish businesses. The loan comes on top of the EUR 1 075 million already provided in 2014. In 2013, the EIB granted loans totalling EUR 1 650 million to ICO.