Puerto Rico Farm Credit pays out $2M in dividends for Fiscal ’19
Puerto Rico Farm Credit, an agricultural financial institution, announced it is paying out $2 million in dividends to its members for Fiscal 2019, while confirming the fifth year of consecutive growth.
“In the past five years, Puerto Rico has experienced multiple emergency situations that have impacted all sectors of the economy, especially the agricultural sector,” said Ricardo L. Fernández, president of the institution.
“With the support and trust of our clients and the bank’s team, we’ve achieved sustained profits with operational efficiencies that allow us to celebrate these results and distribute dividends again this year,” he said.
The dividends payment represented 90% of the institution’s net income. This figure represents 24% of interest income paid or what translates to approximately three months of the interest payment that has been returned to the cooperative bank’s member farmers, as a dividend payment. In the last five years the PRFC has distributed $9.1 million in dividends, the bank confirmed.
Following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Puerto Rico Farm Credit announced financial aid for its farmer partners and clients, including moratoriums on payments and other financial relief solutions.
