Farm Credit Canada's loan portfolio continues to grow.
The crown corporation's latest annual report says it disbursed over 9 billion dollars in loans to farmers, processors and suppliers along the agriculture value chain for the fiscal year ending March 31st.
That boosted FCC's loan portfolio to 28 point 7 billion dollars - an increase of over a billion dollars in the past year.
And the corporation says more than 2 and a half billion dollars worth of this past year's loans went to young farmers.
That's a slight increase over the previous year.
FCC says its percentage of so-called impaired loans dropped to less than 1 per cent of its total portfolio in the most recent fiscal.
Impaired loans are those with are over 90 days in arrears.
The crown corporation paid the federal government a dividend of over 90 million dollars in the most recent fiscal year.
Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay says FCC plays a vital role in supplying family farms, young farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs with the means to provide quality agriculture jobs and grow Canada's middle class.
A copy of the full Farm Credit Canada annual report is on the FCC website - www.fcc.ca/annualreport.
