Crédit Agricole provides 80% of bank loans to farmers in France. This demonstrates the Group's commitment to its historic customer base. This commitment can take a number of forms, whether in supporting farmers through hard times or helping them with innovations or simply being there on a day-to-day basis.
Farmers
Long-term farm management
In response to highly volatile international markets, Crédit Agricole has developed sector-specific products for farmers and food cooperatives, including precautionary savings schemes, crop insurance and cash management products, as well as a “range of options”…These offers allow producers and cooperatives to manage better this volatility which can question the life of the farming companies.
Coping with crises together
As a long-term relationship means being there through the good times and the bad, Crédit Agricole has developed a process with the Regional Banks for managing financial difficulties on a case-by-case basis. Financing and risk management solutions allow farmers to survive sector crises in order to keep up their activities and protect their business.
Encouraging innovation
A number of the Group's entities finance industrial projects relating to new energy sources such as wind energy, biogas, solar and thermal installations and industrial wood fired boilers. In addition to providing direct support, Crédit Agricole helps all agricultural and food manufacturing businesses to adapt to new challenges, particularly as regards environmental issues.
Being there on a daily basis, in the city and in the countryside
With its involvement via its branch network, in the Salon de l’Agriculture and of Machinisme Agricole, Crédit Agricole has also been present on the internet since 2001 via its subsidiary Pleinchamp. The aim of the website is to help farmers to improve their business performance and develop exchanges between professionals, by offering free services and discussion forums.
Focus
Insure the farmers according to their needs
To keep pace with changes in the law and with the farm sector’s growing exposure to weather and health-related risks and to the volatility of energy and agricultural commodity prices, Pacifica, Crédit Agricole's non-life insurance company, recently entered into a partnership with Université Paris-Dauphine and Institut Europlace de Finance. The goal is to step up scientific research on insurance products for farmers.
