The producer is in debt, the collector of interest is in profit

Havva Gümüşkaya

Producers are struggling with soaring diesel, fertiliser, feed and energy prices and are also being crushed under mounting debts to public and private banks, especially Ziraat Bank.

The agriculture sector, which hit a wall in the third quarter with a 12.6 contraction, has already become unable to produce as it is squeezed between rising input costs and low purchase prices. With each passing day the pressure of debt and the risk of withdrawal from production grow.

The financial statements of Ziraat Bank, the main credit channel for farmers, for the third quarter of 2025 also once again revealed the debt spiral producers have fallen into. The bank posted a net profit of 113.7 billion TL in the first nine months of the year and its interest income from farmer loans surged. The interest farmers paid the bank rose 59.7 compared with the same period last year, reaching 234.5 billion lira from 146.8 billion lira.

Even the bank’s low interest loans presented as support end up costing producers dearly. Twenty per cent of the bank’s total interest income came from agricultural support loans.

Farmers’ debts to Ziraat Bank reached 889.8 billion TL in the first nine months of the year.

The bank’s financial statements again showed its move away from its support mission for farmers. The bank, founded to provide financing for agriculture, reached a total loan volume of 3 trillion 965 billion TL. Yet only 22 out of every 100 liras in loans it provided were specialised loans.

In the first nine months of the year the bank provided 3 trillion 75 billion lira in non specialised loans, of which 1 trillion 815 billion lira were business loans and 466.9 billion lira export loans. Consumer loans totalled 316.3 billion TL.

FARMERS IN MONITORING

According to Ziraat Bank’s financial report, the amount of agricultural support loans under close monitoring, not yet written off and not subject to restructuring, rose 69.9. The rise in farmer loans that cannot be rolled over, where instalments are delayed and which have gone into restructuring, reached 174. Close monitored support loans, which totalled 24.7 billion lira in the same period last year, reached 43.5 billion TL.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Üreten borçlu faizi toplayan kârlı, published in BirGün newspaper on December 3, 2025.