Click the link to read the article on the Rocky Mountain PBS website (Sonia Gutierrez, Julio Sandoval). Here’s an excerpt:
The Colorado Department of Agriculture is aiming to address the disadvantages people like [Roberto] Meza face with a pilot lending program. Meza specializes in micro-greens. He says banks didn’t know much about the economics or profitability of said market, so they were denied loans.
“It was really, really hard for us to gain funding as first-time entrepreneurs who had very little collateral and very little business experience,” explained Meza.
To address this need, the Colorado Department of Agriculture launched their first-ever revolving loan program. Colorado’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Kate Greenberg, said the program is a $30 million fund that came out of the state’s recovery efforts. “So, over the last two years Colorado has been successful in getting $96 million for Colorado agriculture. This is a part of that package,” she said. Greenberg said the intention is for the program to live on well beyond this initial loan fund. “As we lend money and get dollars paid back through those loans, we’ll be able to initiate more loans in the future.” This program is meant to be financially inclusive. It targets people in agriculture who have historically been left out of conventional lending…
This loan can be used for conservation efforts, equipment investments and processors. “We also have terms around re-payment schedules,” explained Greenberg. “Knowing that the cashflow bottlenecks within agriculture can make it very difficult to have monthly payments. Because often times during harvest is when you’ll get your cash.”
Greenberg also said the program was perfect for families who want to continue the traditions of farming.