Loading…
Loading…
The Regional Investment Corporation (RIC) is the Australian Government's concessional farm-lending vehicle, administered jointly with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The 29 August 2025 announcement adds AUD 1 billion in new loan-funding capacity, bringing total RIC agricultural loan support past AUD 5 billion since the corporation's creation.
The centrepiece of the package is a new Drought Hardship Loan product: farmers who have experienced drought conditions for at least 24 months and expect continued impact for another season can borrow up to AUD 250,000 on a five-year term, with interest accruing from drawdown but scheduled repayments fully deferred for the first two years — a cash-flow relief instrument rather than a grant.
Alongside the drought product, the government widened RIC's statutory scope so the corporation can also lend in support of climate-resilience investment, broader sector-productivity upgrades, and agriculture's transition toward net zero — extending RIC beyond its original drought/hardship remit into general farm-sector capital formation.
This is a domestic concessional-credit facility (state loan), not a tariff, export control, or procurement-localisation measure, and it does not name any foreign country or import flow.
food-security-agricultural-border-controls / production-support theme alongside comparable RIC-adjacent Australian actions in the register.
margin during drought years, but has no direct trade-flow effect on non-Australian suppliers.
monitor for a formal RIC program-guideline update or further RIC capital injections.