Promotional activity
Our promotional activities focus on special promotional loans.
The 2025 financial year was marked by a sharp increase in our new business involving special promotional loans – across all promotional lines.
New business involving special promotional loans in 2025
(total: EUR 6.6 billion)
At just under EUR 6.6 billion, the volume in 2025 was 82% higher than in the previous year. The number of special promotional loans approved remained virtually unchanged from the previous year at 10,880.
New special promotional loans (in euro millions)
| Promotional line | 2025 | 2024 |
| Agriculture | 1,910 | 1,438 |
| Forestry | 9 | 6 |
| Aquaculture and fisheries | 2 | 1 |
| Agribusiness | 844 | 345 |
| Renewable energy | 1,768 | 76 |
| Rural development | 2,025 | 1,736 |
| In total | 6,559 | 3,602 |
Extensive promotion of sustainability projects by the Rentenbank’s special promotional loans
We support sustainable investments in agriculture with our special promotional programmes and interest rate bonuses (preferential and premium terms). Through the “Energy from rural areas” programme, we support the expansion of renewable energy, in particular investments by farmers in the generation of solar, biogas and wind energy, as well as investments by wind farm operators in rural areas.
Sustainability support is also embedded in various programmes within the promotional lines “Agriculture”, “Forestry” and “Agribusiness”. The objectives of these programmes are to improve animal welfare, increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, they serve to promote nature conservation, consumer protection and organic farming.
Expansion of the “Areas of future development” promotional programme
The areas of future development are selected topics that Rentenbank has identified as being especially worthy of promotion and/or innovative on the basis of current social and political discourse. The loans offered under this programme feature additionally subsidised premium terms. The programme is flexible and can be adjusted as needed.
Under the “Areas of future development” programme, we promoted investment projects with 419 loans totalling EUR 207.0 million at premium terms in the past financial year (2024: 300 loans totalling EUR 89.9 million).
In August, we expanded the programme to include the future field “Alternative proteins in human and animal nutrition”. Through this future field, Rentenbank supports, among other things, investments in the production and processing of algae, insects and protein-rich fungi, as well as in the processing of domestically grown legumes. Alternative protein sources are used both in human nutrition and in animal feed.
In the “UN Year of Women in Agriculture” 2026, there is one funding offer in particular on which we are placing special emphasis: the future field “Female farm successors and female start-up founders”. During the reporting year, we recorded the second-highest demand among the future fields in this area, with 102 approved loans. At EUR 47 million, the loan volume was around 184% higher than in the previous year.
The future field “Female farm successors and female start-up founders” is one building block in enabling significantly more women to take over farms or assume business management roles. At the same time, we are aware that successful business succession requires not only financing, but also personal skills. For this reason, in 2024 we launched a coaching programme for women in the green sector in cooperation with the Social Insurance for Agriculture, Forestry and Horticulture (Sozialversicherung für Landwirtschaft, Forsten und Gartenbau; SVLFG). Its aim is to encourage more women to start businesses through targeted start-up advice. In view of the encouragingly strong demand for this promotional programme, we increased the financial resources in 2025 to a total of EUR 500,000. In addition, the programme term was extended until the end of 2026.
Investment in sustainable projects significantly increased
Through its programmes, Rentenbank generally supports the transition towards greater sustainability in the agriculture and agribusiness sectors. Some programmes are explicitly designed to support particularly sustainable projects. At a total of EUR 2.3 billion (2024: EUR 365 million), 35% of our new special promotional loans in the reporting year was channelled into these programmes, with investment in renewable energy accounting for just under 80%.
Sustainable investments (in euro millions)
| 2025 | 2024 | |
| Renewable energy | 1,824 | 76 |
| Animal welfare-friendly husbandry | 139 | 121 |
| Emission reduction | 49 | 64 |
| Energy efficiency | 157 | 21 |
| Organic farming | 60 | 46 |
| Other | 65 | 37 |
| Total | 2,294 | 365 |
| Share of new special promotional loans (%) | 35 | 10 |
Rentenbank supports carbon accounting in agriculture
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing agriculture. The sector is not only affected by these changes, but also seeks to contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing and sequestering emissions. An important first step in addressing these challenges is to analyse the individual emissions profile of an agricultural business. A GHG inventory enables a business to identify its sources of emissions and define targeted measures to reduce them. Although food production cannot be entirely emission-free, there is still potential to further optimise its carbon footprint. Relevant data also provide added value in discussions and negotiations with partners in the value chain, banks and insurers.
For this reason, in July Rentenbank introduced grants for agricultural businesses to cover advisory costs incurred in preparing a GHG inventory. Rentenbank subsidises 90% of the net advisory costs, up to a maximum amount of EUR 1,000. By the end of the year, we had approved 830 applications, with a total grant volume of EUR 0.8 million.
In addition, from the beginning of October, agricultural businesses with a GHG inventory benefit from an interest rate reduction of 0.25 percentage points on investment in fixed assets, excluding land purchases. By the end of the year, we had granted 199 loans amounting to EUR 92.5 million under this interest bonus scheme.
Building investment shapes new business in the “Agriculture” promotional line
New business in the “Agriculture” promotional line increased by 32.8% compared with the previous year. Building investment, including the construction of livestock housing, accounted for the largest share of the financing volume at EUR 590 million (31%). Our support for livestock housing increased for the second consecutive year, including as a result of the establishment of our “Livestock housing conversion for greater animal welfare” future field. In the reporting year, machinery financing amounted to EUR 532 million, equivalent to a share of 28%. Loans for land acquisition accounted for 21%, at EUR 409 million.
Support of the Federal Environment Ministry’s Nature-based Climate Action Programme (ANK)
In 2025, we again implemented the grant programme entitled “Promotion of investment in machinery and equipment to strengthen natural soil functions in agricultural landscapes” as part of the German Federal Environment Ministry’s Nature-based Climate Action Programme (Aktionsprogramm Natürlicher Klimaschutz; ANK). The programme is currently scheduled to run until the end of 2026.
The federal government’s objective in launching the ANK programme is to considerably improve the general condition and resilience of eco-systems in Germany in order to strengthen their climate change mitigation performance and so make a lasting contribution to climate change mitigation.
Location-adapted and sustainable soil management preserves natural soil functions and promotes soil biodiversity and thus makes an important contribution to nature-based climate change mitigation. This programme promotes investment in machinery and equipment to enhance the carbon sink function of soils and biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, in particular machinery and equipment designed for soil-conserving land management and reduction of soil pressure, mechanical weed control, and extensive grassland management.
Not only agricultural enterprises, but also agricultural contractors, commercial machinery rings, and recognised nature conservation associations are eligible to apply for such loans. Investment projects are supported with a subsidy of up to 65% of the total investment amount, which can be optionally combined with a low-interest promotional loan by Rentenbank to finance the rest.
In June 2025, a second call for expressions of interest was launched for Category A.1 “Machinery and equipment for the management of rewetted or wet peat soils”, followed by an invitation round.
In 2025, we approved 1,223 applications with a total grant volume of more than EUR 35.4 million. 188 customers also took up optional loans from Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank totalling EUR 14.4 million.
New business in the “Agribusiness” promotional line increased sharply
The sharp year-on-year increase of 145% in new business in the “Agribusiness” promotional line was attributable primarily to demand from large companies for non-aid loans, as these loans became significantly more attractive through the normalisation of the yield curve. In the agribusiness promotional line, machinery investment accounted for the largest share of new business at 44%, or EUR 373 million, followed by building finance at 26%, or EUR 219 million.
Higher demand for loans in the “Rural development” promotional line
Developments in the “Rural development” promotional line were driven mainly by demand from the state-level promotional institutions for global loans from Rentenbank amounting to EUR 1.7 billion. This corresponded to a share of 84% of new business in this promotional line. These funds were used in particular to support local infrastructure projects in rural areas.