Agrario fuels Caribbean passion

Colombian state-run agricultural development bank Agrario has approved 2.18bn pesos (US$775,000) in credit to aid 610 small producers of passion fruit in the country's Caribbean coastal region, local daily El Tiempo reported. The loan will be distributed to eight agricultural associations and cooperatives in the municipalities of La Guajira, Cesar, Cordoba and Sucre, and will be targeted at boosting passion fruit production in 1,127 areas of cultivatable land. The credit line is designed to install passion fruit production as one of the mainstays of the region's economy based on potential sales in the international market, agriculture minister Juan Lucas Restrepo was quoted as saying. Banco Agrario posted net income of 66.3bn pesos (US$26mn) in 1H02, up 90% from the same period last year. It has 701 branches in 684 municipalities, and is the only bank in 484 of those municipalities.