August 11, 2010
Vietnam firms get credit from US to import animal feed materials
The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) under the USDA has provided credit guarantee for three banks to lend US$4 million to five Vietnamese companies to import animal feed materials from the US.
The one-year loans have a preferential interest rate of between 3.3% and 4% per annum, versus higher lending rate of 6%-7% charged by Vietnamese banks.
These loans are under the CCC's GSM-102 programme which aimed to encourage the US's exports of food and farm produce.
Sacombank is currently the only commercial bank in Vietnam to take part in the programme, together with two US lenders of Co Bank and Deutsche Bank.
GSM-102 underwrites credit extended by the private banking sector in the US to approved foreign banks using dollar-denominated, irrevocable letters of credit to pay for food and agricultural products sold to foreign buyers.
The US surpassed India and Argentina to become the biggest exporter of animal feeds to Vietnam with revenues jumping 350% from a year earlier to US$185 million in the first four months of 2010.
The sum accounted for 24% of Vietnam's total animal feed import revenues during the period.