AgroBank financed the agri-food sector through €33,548 million in 2024, an 18% increase on the previous year

• CaixaBank's agri-food business line encompasses nearly 500,000 customers, one out of every two agricultural and livestock farmers in Spain
• The company services its customers through its 1,140 specialised AgroBank branches, the largest network within the agri-food sector, providing its services across all provinces.
• Jaime Campos, director of AgroBank, states that “AgroBank provides the agri-food sector with overall support, with particular emphasis on financing as the key driver for promoting its transformation and for seeking solutions for the major challenges the sector faces”

AgroBank has provided the agri-food chain with a total of €33,548 million in financing throughout 2024, an 18% increase in comparison to the €28,441 million lent in 2023. CaixaBank's business line specialising in the agri-food sector has 1,140 specialised branches distributed throughout Spain, with a presence in all provinces, especially in rural municipalities.

CaixaBank's agri-food business line encompasses nearly half a million customers, meaning that one out of every two agricultural and livestock farmers in Spain is an AgroBank customer. Its business model is implemented thanks to specialised managers, professionals with specific training in the peculiar needs of a highly varying sector in terms of crops and livestock. The bank's risk teams are specialised in their areas of influence, ensuring they have in-depth knowledge of the customers' needs, and they understand their cash flows.

The director of AgroBank, Jaime Campos, stated that “AgroBank provides the agri-food sector with wide-ranging support, with particular emphasis on financing as the key driver for promoting its transformation and for seeking solutions for the major challenges the sector faces”. He has also stressed the importance of “the specialisation of branches and teams in accompanying the professionals in seeking solutions for these challenges, which include digitisation, sustainability, entrepreneurship and productivity”.

Transformation of the sector

Among AgroBank's main milestones reached during 2024 we have the launch of AgroBank Hub, a digital platform for both customers and non-customers that aims to contribute to the transformation of Spain's countryside areas, promoting innovation, sustainability and strengthening communication between the sector's various agents.

AgroBank Hub is conceived as an ecosystem that seeks to transform the way in which the bank's customers and non-customers interact with the agri-food sector, and become a meeting point and a benchmark for all agents.

Thus, a single platform integrates four verticals : current affairs, with daily information and sector reports; an environment of solutions for optimum decision making via tools and simulators; a marketplace with specialised products and services; and, lastly, a community that aims to contribute to the transformation of the sector.

Furthermore, to support the ecological transition of the sector, AgroBank has a range of specialised financial products, such as Agroinversión Cultivos Leñosos or Agroinversión Transición Ecológica, in addition to other precision farming and renewable energy solutions adapted to the agricultural sector.

Agreement with MAPA

During 2024, CaixaBank and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food signed an agreement to promote solutions and programmes that will allow the Spanish agri-food sector to deal with the challenges the future may bring.

Specifically, the agreement between CaixaBank and the Ministry promotes their joint collaboration in activities that encourage competitiveness, sustainability, innovation, the role of women and generational replacement within the agricultural, livestock, fishing and food sectors.

Among the projects recently promoted by CaixaBank and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food we have ‘Crecemos juntas”, a project that includes several programmes such as mentoring for rural women, a training programme available to businesswomen located in rural areas, in addition to awareness events.

Separately, and as part of its commitment towards sustainability and the digitisation of the sector in order to further its transformation, MAPA collaborates with CaixaBank in ‘AgroBank Tech Digital INNovation’, a startup acceleration programme for the agri-food sector, which held its second edition in 2024 and is already preparing the launch of a third edition.

The open innovation programme available for the agri-food sector received a total of 217 applications in 2024, 41% more than in the previous year, when a total of 154 applications were submitted. The initiative is strengthening its presence as a benchmark among startup accelerators within the agri-food sector.

A series of initiatives are also underway to improve training in rural areas via the Dual Vocational Training programme provided through CaixaBank Dualiza.

Activities within the social sphere

Within the framework of its commitment to generational replacement within rural areas, AgroBank and the Basque Culinary Center have created 'Impulso Agro', an initiative aimed at creating awareness of the young people working within the Spanish agri-food sector, who are contributing to its transformation thanks to their work and their projects. Some of the main objectives of ‘Impulso Agro’ include that of becoming an awareness platform for young people working in the agricultural sector, as well as shaping a community that connects the different agents within the agri-food sector, with the aim of inspiring, generating knowledge and networking for young people working in the agricultural sector.

Another one of this year's novelties includes the launching of a loan, thanks to MicroBank and ASAJA, to facilitate the incorporation of young people into the sector without the need to seek guarantees or sureties.

In the academic and research fields, the company has the ‘AgroBank Professorship on Quality and Innovation in the Agri-Food Sector’ with the University of Lleida and the ‘Professorship on Women, Business and the Rural World’ with the University of Castile-La Mancha. 

Additionally, AgroBank actively collaborates with the leading organisations within the sector - at both national and regional levels- through various collaboration agreements.