Rural credit allocated to agribusiness (excluding the National Program for Strengthening Family Farming – Pronaf) totaled R$ 433 billion between July 2025 and May 2026, within the scope of the 2025/2026 Harvest Plan. This amount is 5% lower than the R$ 458.1 billion contracted in the same period of the previous harvest. The data, still provisional, are from the Rural Credit Performance Bulletin prepared by the Financing Department (Defin) of the Secretariat of Agricultural Policy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa), based on information from the Rural Credit and Proagro Operations System (Sicor) of the Central Bank of Brazil. The main highlight of the period was the growth in financing for industrialization, which increased from R$ 19.7 billion to R$ 31.5 billion, a rise of 59.5%. This result reflects the expansion of processing and value addition to agricultural products, with significant participation from cooperatives. Industrialization was also the only purpose to register an increase in the number of contracts, with an advance of 17.7%.
CPR expands participation in rural credit.
Brazilian Agricultural Product Certificates (CPRs) maintained their growth trajectory, reaching R$ 185.2 billion in contracts, an 8% increase compared to the same period of the previous harvest. With this performance, CPRs now represent 42.8% of the total volume granted in the 2025/2026 harvest, compared to 37.4% in the previous cycle, consolidating themselves as the main instrument for financing agricultural production costs. Considering both production cost operations and CPRs, the volume allocated to production financing reached R$ 322.7 billion, a decrease of only 2.1% compared to the previous harvest. Another expanding segment was the National Program to Support Medium-Sized Rural Producers (Pronamp), which registered R$ 56.4 billion in concessions, a growth of 4.3%. The performance of financing for medium-sized producers exceeded that of the previous harvest and reflects the measures adopted in the Harvest Plan to expand the supply of resources destined for this segment, including the increase in the sub-requirements for demand deposits.
INTEREST RATES
Investment programs registered a 28.1% decrease in total operations, a movement that still reflects producers' caution in the face of high interest rates. The largest declines occurred in the Irrigated Agriculture and Protected Cultivation Financing Program (Proirriga), with a 56% drop; in the Cooperative Development Program for Adding Value to Agricultural Production (Prodecoop), with a 54% reduction; and in the Program for Modernizing the Fleet of Agricultural Tractors and Associated Implements and Harvesters (Moderfrota), also with a 54% decrease. According to the bulletin, the execution below schedule in all investment programs indicates that the main constraint is in the demand for credit, influenced by the financial cost of operations, and not in the supply of resources, although financial institutions have adopted more selective criteria in granting loans. The scenario is also impacted by international economic instability, increased default rates, rising production costs, and the climate risks faced by the sector in recent years.
SOURCES OF FUNDS
Among the funding sources, the growth of Controlled Agribusiness Credit Notes (LCAs) stood out, increasing from R$ 927 million to R$ 28.8 billion, becoming the second main source of controlled rural credit resources. Free LCAs registered a 38% decrease. Part of this reduction was offset by the expansion of Free Rural Savings, which grew by 49.5%, equivalent to R$ 19.1 billion, reaching R$ 57.6 billion in contracts. Equalizable resources, those with interest rates subsidized by the National Treasury, totaled R$ 48.9 billion in the 2025/2026 harvest, with a remaining balance of 47%. According to the bulletin, the observed reduction in this source is associated with the increase in interest rates, the greater selectivity of financial institutions, and the beginning of the mandatory compliance with the requirements for demand deposits by credit cooperatives and cooperative banks, which migrated their contracts to this source. In the regional distribution of rural credit concessions, excluding CPRs (Rural Product Certificates), the Southern Region led both in financial volume, with R$ 74.2 billion, and in the number of contracts, with 131,109 operations carried out. The Northeast registered the largest decrease in value among the regions, with a 26% reduction compared to the same period of the previous harvest.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.