With the rise in input costs forcing many growers to push their pencils even farther, knowing that your cooperative is ready to address your needs is critical. Pam Jahnke talks to Hans Pflieger, Vice President of Credit Operations at ALCIVIA about the flow of paperwork he’s been handling, and also the new opportunity available through the Patron Note Program.
One of the biggest challenges going forward for farmers is going to be getting financing for 2022 fertilizer. Prices are up, seed prices are up everything is up, and Pam it’s a good thing we got some folks that can help us out.
Absolutely Bob, we’re focused this time around on how ALCIVIA is trying to provide financing options for the customer farmers that they work with.
I talked about it with Hans Pflieger, he is in charge of the verity program and financing options that ALCIVIA is offering farms across the state of Wisconsin. I just basically started off with explaining what Verity is, for farmers that have used it they’ve become accustomed to it as a tool, but for farmers that have never investigated Hans tell us a little bit more about Verity.
Verity business solutions is a wholly owned subsidiary of ALCIVIA and it provides in-house financing options for our members which is just another benefit of doing business with ALCIVIA. Having access to cash to increase cash flow in times when farmers are getting tight.
How does Verity play in with the other finance programs available at all ALCIVIA?
Verity has three separate programs, grower financing programs, one that I want to talk about today is the jumpstart program which is our in-house financing for fall fertilizer. It allows farmers to purchase their fertilizer in the fall apply it in the fall and not pay for it until march 31st at zero percent interest.
The benefits of that really Pam are to get the fall fertilizer out on the ground in this in the fall so it’s more available in the spring it also allows farmers to be able to do that work when they have more time to be able to do it. In the spring, we’re doing a lot of spraying and delivering of seed and chemicals and don’t have the maybe the bandwidth at that point in time to be able to do it as we would in the fall.
So how fast does this process take if I’m trying to get those best prices at this time of the year how quickly are decisions made when it comes to verity and some of these financing programs?
You know depending on the size of the loan you need anywhere from 48 hours to about a week to be able to get the financing and be able to book the loan and have it available to be able to make those prepaid decisions on fertilizer.
Now some folks are going to say, wait a minute, wait a minute, we’ve never heard of Verity, never heard of these financing programs, will my ALCIVIA representative know about that Hans? Or where do I go to find out more about verity and the financing programs available in house through ALCIVIA?
If you reach out to your local ALCIVIA agronomist they could definitely help you and point you in the right direction, we also have a link on the ALCIVIA.com website.
Now, Hans, why should I shop Verity, and your financing programs versus my traditional lenders?
I think that you know it’s a goal of ALCIVIA and Verity to be able to provide convenient producer financing programs at competitive rates to allow members to purchase products when the best deal is on the table, and I think that the convenience factor and being able to deal and walk in the door and be able to get everything done in one swoop is a benefit to the members moving forward.