UCPB-CIIF Finance and Development Corp.’s loans to small coconut farmers hit P279 million at the end of the third quarter of the year, the social-development arm of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) said in a statement.
The corporation, in particular, released P126 million in new livelihood loans to coconut farmers in the months of July to September alone.
The loans financed livelihood activities of 3,897 coconut farmers in 60 coconut-producing provinces across the country aimed at augmenting their income from coconut farming.
UCPB-CIIF Finance, one of the social-development arms of the UCPB Group and the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) Group, is tasked with delivering credits to the countryside in keeping with the two groups’ common mandate to help improve the living condition of coconut farmers.
Company President Edgardo Amistad said UCPB-CIIF Finance has been providing financing to coconut farmers since 1995 for short-gestation projects that generate quick returns, such as cash crop cultivation, livestock raising, commodities trading and village-based processing of coconut by-products like coconut sugar.
The corporation said the loans are released through rural financial institutions, the bulk of which are cooperatives.
UCPB-CIIF Finance has a network of these countryside partners that can reach out to over 20,300 barangays in 68 coconut provinces.
Total loans released by UCPB-CIIF Finance over the past 32 years is nearing the P10-billion mark at P9.3 billion. The loans have benefited 447,000 coconut farmers.
Banks in the country have been mandated by law to allot 15 percent of their total loan portfolio to agricultural credit.