Months after its legislative approval, the Coffee Trust is to receive funds to support the sector affected by rust.
Last Friday the Comptroller General of the Republic ratified a contract for the Coffee Trust. For months several administrative obstacles had delayed approval of the trust which will be used to provide support to producers affected by the coffee rust fungus.
While everyone waits for the trust to manage to complete its last administrative tasks, it has been revealed that the maximum interest rate to be charged for its loans will not be more than 6%.
The $40 million Coffee Trust which was approved by the Costa Rican Congress last year, and is awaiting final approval from the Comptroller's Office, will open four credit programs with maximum interest rates of 6%.
A year after the declaration of a state of emergency by the government because of the rust blight, 25,000 farmers are still waiting for the bureaucracy to enable the operation of a $40 million trust fund.
The money has already been deposited in an account with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), but the Comptroller General of the Republic must endorse the trust no later than January 17th.
The trust that the government of Costa Rica created to support coffee farmers afflicted by rust has now been capitalized by Congress.
An article in Prensalibre.com reports that "The Congress of Costa Rica passed on the second and final debate yesterday a special government budget of about $126 million, which includes $40 million to combat coffee rust and help producers. "
The law creating a trust to support Costa Rican coffee growers is already in place but the budget of $40 million is still in line waiting for congressional approval.
The law, which has already been published in the the official newspaper La Gaceta, was declared of public interest meaning that it will prevail over anyone opposition.
Elfinancierocr.com reports: "The primary purpose of the trust is the comprehensive care of the needs facing coffee producers, whose production could be up to "two double hundred hectoliters of coffee "(100 bushels) during 2012-2013, and the coffee crops of 2013-2014 ".
The coffee sector now has a trust fund which can be used to attend to crops affected by the rust plague; it will be administered by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Some 40,000 small coffee producers will benefit from the plan of actions which include among other things, the phytosanitary management of the epidemic, strengthening the coffee tree renewal plan and an outreach program.