Bellanova: “fundamental measure, expected for years. So we meet the needs of a strategic sector and put an end to a serious shortcoming "

"With this decree we put an end to a ten-year failure, meeting the legitimate needs of fishing companies, giving them an important tool for planning growth, revitalization, investments".

So the Minister Teresa Bellanova, after the signing of the Decree, not by chance defined as "fundamental", aimed at facilitating access to credit through the Ismea Guarantee Fund also to companies operating in the fishing sector, this year particularly burdened by problems of liquidity and economic damage deriving from the Covid emergency.

"How necessary and urgent it was to make this instrument structural," continues Minister Bellanova, "is confirmed by the Ismea data on the number of guarantees that the resources allocated in the Liquidity Decree and now also in the Relaunch, obviously extended to the entire agricultural sector, fisheries, and aquaculture, are making it possible, guaranteeing immediate liquidity to companies.

Well, today there are about 400 fishing companies that have made use of it, with a total amount of funding for over 7 million, and it is clear that making this instrument structural will be a breath of fresh air and important support for this segment.

This is in addition to all those put in place in these months starting from the Budget Law, not least the measure wanted with force at the time of the approval of the Relaunch Decree and covered by Mipaaf resources for about 4 million, which guarantees income protection for self-employed workers fisheries, including cooperative members, hitherto excluded from the benefit of the horizontal measures envisaged by the Cura Italia and the Dl Raising ".

MEASURE DIAGRAM

The decree establishes the criteria and application procedures for the granting of the ISMEA guarantee against short, medium and long-term loans or commercial transactions in favor of fish companies intended for companies operating in the fishing sector, pursuant to art. . 17, paragraphs 2 and 4, of Legislative Decree 29 March 2004, n.102.

For this purpose, ISMEA will also be able to count on the additional resources allocated by the Government with the relaunch DL for the Covid emergency, but the procedures will remain valid for ordinary guarantees even after 2020.

In detail, the guarantee operations governed by the decree concern the granting of:

1. direct guarantee, at the request of the lenders;
2. co-guarantee, counter-guarantee and reinsurance, at the request of confidi or other guarantee funds;
3. guarantee against commercial transactions;
4. collateral for portfolios consisting of exposures with a duration of not less than eighteen months and an amount not exceeding 1 million euro.

The same person will be able to access guarantees up to a total amount of 1 million euros (for micro and small businesses) or 2 million euros (for medium-sized businesses).

Medium or long-term loans will be able to access the various forms of guarantees, intended for:

1. investment in processing, storage and marketing of fishery and aquaculture products;
2. interventions for commercial enhancement and promotion of product quality; to help save energy or reduce the impact on the environment, including waste treatment; to improve safety, hygiene, health and working conditions;
3. purchase of new machines and equipment.

Short-term loans are also allowed for the purchase of goods or services necessary for the ordinary management of the business.

The guarantee can be granted up to a limit of 70% of the loan or contract value in the case of guarantees for commercial transactions, to be raised to 80% for young fish entrepreneurs.

Signed decree to facilitate the fishing sector for financing through the granting of the Ismea guarantee