ING Bank Romania supports DN Agrar group with 20 million Euro financing

ING supports with total financing of 20 million Euro the development of the DN Agrar group, the largest integrated livestock farm in Romania, leader in the production of cow milk. DN Agrar Group aims to sustainably increase the production capacity of farms and invest in digitization and modernization projects. Future plans include the construction of a new farm, as well as a compost plant, the use of industrial robots on the farms and the installation of solar panels.

Last year, DN Agrar contracted a loan of 13.8 million Euro from ING Bank for the purchase of the Apold farm. After taking over the Lacto Agrar farm in 2021 and the acquisition of the Apold farm in 2022, DN Agrar became the largest livestock farm with cow’s milk production in Romania.

“ING Bank Romania entered the agricultural financing segment in 2015. The partnership with the DN Agrar group started a year later, in 2016, when we granted them the first loan worth 5 million Euro. Today, seven years later, the value of the loans contracted by DN Agrar from ING Bank has reached 20 million Euro and we are happy to have a close collaboration. We believed from the beginning in their idea to develop this business, we supported them to grow, and we continue to do so, even more so in their transition to sustainable practices.

We believe in the growth potential for the milk market in Romania, because there is room both in terms of improving productivity and sustainably increasing the number of cows. DN Agrar will have an important role in this regard, both through their business model and through the experience and sustainable practices they have brought and can bring to this field,” said Marius Gavrea, Agribusiness Expert, ING Bank Romania.

The DN Agrar group consists of 15 companies with a total of 12,000 cattle and over 7,000 hectares of land, with a market value of almost 130 million RON. In the first quarter of 2023, DN AGRAR recorded a turnover of 44 million RON (a 48 percent increase compared to the same period last year), and the net profit reached 8 million RON (an advance of 172 percent compared to the previous year). From 2022, the company is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, in the AeRO market.

“In 2022, for the takeover of the Apold cow farm, we accessed a loan of 13.8 million Euro from ING Bank, our trusted partner for over 7 years. This acquisition allowed us to expand the business and invest in the farm, the machinery fleet and the equipment used. Thus, last year, we became the largest producer of cow’s milk in Romania, following two acquisitions (Apold and Lacto Agrar farms), registering an increase of over 60 percent in total assets.

Our strategy is to support an integrated agriculture, part of a circular economy. We will continue to invest in the digitization and modernization of our farms, with high-performance equipment of international standards, systems for precision agriculture, as well as in the installation of solar panels, the construction of a new farm and a new compost factory,” said Jan Gijsbertus De Boer, president of the DN Agrar Board of Directors.

DN Agrar projects in 2023

The DN Agrar group aims to build a new farm – the Straja project, with a total capacity of 5,000 animals, meaning 3,600 dairy cows and 1,400 young cattle, on a total area of 10 hectares.

To improve work efficiency on farms, DN Agrar will install and use industrial robots in the milking sheds, which will lead to a 50 percent reduction in manual labor after the completion and implementation of this project. At the same time, in order to reduce the costs of transporting water to the garbage lagoons and those with plant residues from the fields, it will also build a compost factory, which will also lead to the establishment of an alternative line of business.

Moreover, DN Agrar will install solar panels on the roofs of Cut, Lacto Agrar and Apold farms.