Opportunities to expand collective economic lending

More and more cooperatives have strong potential, holding the leading role in large production value chains and becoming the center of financial and credit support policies.

Value chain linkage cooperatives attract capital

Mr. Nguyen Minh Hien - Director of GAP Cooperative Cu Lao Gieng ( An Giang ) said that as of October 2025, this unit owned 300 hectares of green-skinned and small-seeded mangoes of 51 official members. Thereby, Cu Lao Gieng also linked with 5 other production groups with over 240 members; increasing the total cultivated area of ​​the entire cooperative to over 530 hectares.

Recently, Cu Lao Gieng has successfully built 2 3-star OCOP products; been granted 11 growing area codes and successfully implemented a production linkage model to guarantee output for farmers, ensuring a minimum profit of 30%. The cooperative's products have been exported to most major markets such as the United States, China, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

For large units such as Cu Lao Gieng mentioned above, financial and credit support activities have been quite favorable in the past time. According to the State Bank of Vietnam, Region 15 branch, the outstanding debt of 4 large cooperatives in An Giang has reached 28 billion VND. In addition, dozens of other cooperatives have also accessed unsecured loans from the Policy Bank, with An Giang province supporting 100% of the interest rate in the first 2 years of borrowing.

Similarly, in Can Tho and Vinh Long, by the end of October 2025, outstanding loans to cooperatives reached VND830 billion. Dozens of large agricultural cooperatives participating in the 1 million hectare low-emission high-quality rice project and the project to build standard rice, vegetable and fruit material areas have accessed preferential short-term loans with interest rates from 4.0% - 5.5%/year and medium and long-term loans with interest rates from 6.0% - 7.7%/year.

Similar results were also seen in Dong Thap and Tay Ninh provinces. By the end of September 2025, the cumulative lending turnover of credit institutions to cooperatives in these two localities had reached over 283 billion VND. Many key industries in Dong Thap and Tay Ninh such as rice, tra fish, durian, etc., cooperatives have borrowed capital of 5-7 billion VND to invest in production and export processing.

The demand for medium and long-term loans to invest in infrastructure and post-harvest processing increases as production and business activities expand.

Collective economy: VIP customers of banks

The "billionaire farmer" clubs and "billionaire cooperatives" are linking together to form economic organizations with large financial potential and raw material areas.

Mr. Tong Van Huong - Head of the Billionaire Farmers Association (Minh Thanh Commune, Ho Chi Minh City) said that this association has 65 members. Most of them are cooperative directors and "billionaire farmers" from communes in the old Binh Duong area. The area of ​​fruit trees cultivated by this farmers association is over 1,000 hectares and the total livestock herd is over 1 million. Many models have invested a large amount of financial resources in farms, gardens and accessed loans from commercial banks and farmer support funds to expand production.

According to data from the Department of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development - Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, by mid-2025, the country had more than 2,900 approved projects and linkage plans, of which 79.3% were cooperatives playing the leading role in the large agricultural production value chain. These cooperatives have been the recipients of 73.1% of the total budget support from the Government's preferential policies. This shows that the current cooperative model in some localities in the South has become a "coordination center" in many industries, especially in the agricultural and aquatic products sector.

According to some Agribank branches in the Mekong Delta, the current demand for loans to invest in post-harvest processing technology to increase the value of products of cooperatives is quite large. Many cooperatives have a need to borrow capital with a special mechanism with low interest rates, long-term loans and accept forms of security with intangible assets such as off-take contracts or value chains.

According to banks, Decree No. 156/2025/ND-CP amending Decree 55/2015/ND-CP on credit policy for agricultural and rural development takes effect, the number of cooperatives participating in borrowing capital to develop chain linkages will increase, especially cooperatives that are the owners of OCOP products in localities.

According to the new regulations, the limit for unsecured loans for cooperatives and cooperative unions has been raised to a maximum of VND 5 billion. In addition, cooperatives with organic agricultural production projects and plans or following a circular economic model are considered for unsecured loans of up to 70% of the project value... Therefore, the opportunity for models to access unsecured loans is quite large and is also a driving force for banks to increase credit growth in key production and export sectors with strengths in the locality.

Source: https://thoibaonganhang.vn/co-hoi-mo-rong-cho-vay-kinh-te-tap-the-173726.html