For October’s NEAFA member highlight, we spoke with Matthew Senter, Vice-President of Lender Relations for Agri-Access. “I joined Agri-Access in January 2023,” said Senter. “Agri-Access has been providing secondary market lending and leasing products since 2003, but until recently, we’ve had a very modest presence in Northeast.”
While Agri-Access is headquartered in the Des Moines, IA area, Senter is based in Vermont in the Middlebury area. “Agri-Access is a provider of secondary market lending products with local representatives serving different geographies across the US,” said Senter. “With our headquarters being located in Iowa, we have a well-established partner network in the Midwest. We have a very experienced team that serves agriculture – including staff that manage technology, accounting, credit underwriting, loan servicing and as well as an experienced sales team. What we do is unique. In my prior roles in the Farm Credit system, I worked directly with producers and agribusinesses. Agri-Access is different. We help banks and other financing providers to make more agricultural loans. Our partners would include community banks that are actively financing farms and agribusinesses, but may not have access to long term fixed interest rate products that are needed by those businesses. Agri-Access can provide the community bank with access to those products. We also can help our partners with large and complex loan transactions. Agri-Access is able to participate in loans originated by our partners to help them manage the risk exposure to individual loan transactions. In partnership with Agri-Access, our partners can serve agricultural customers and support them through the excellent service provided by community banks and other local providers. We take on all (or part) of the risk of each loan, and they continue to serve the customer in a meaningful way. Everyone gets to where they want to be. The bank meets the credit needs of its customer while also managing risk exposure & funding costs and the customer is able to continue working with the bank or finance provider that they know and are comfortable with.”
Senter’s agricultural background goes beyond his work with Agri-Access and Farm Credit as well. “I grew up on a small dairy in Constable, NY, north of Malone,” said Senter. “That was my start in the agricultural community. I majored in Economics at St. Lawrence University, but I wasn’t sure that agriculture would be where my career ended up going when I first started studying. As I neared the end of school however, I wanted to see if there was a way to combine my interests in agriculture, banking, and economics. By chance, I saw that there was an opening to work for Farm Credit of Maine and was fortunate to be able to join that organization in 1995. I moved to Maine almost immediate after graduating, worked in Maine for over 25 years and then relocated to Vermont to take a role managing Commercial Lending for Yankee Farm Credit in 2018. There were a few things that drew me to Agri-Access after my time with Farm Credit. In some rural communities, there are very few options when farmers and agribusiness owners need to borrow. In fact, there might not be more than a couple of options in many areas, and those options might not always be a good fit for the businesses’ borrowing needs. That’s where Agri-Access comes in. We work with banks and other financing providers so that they can provide more lending options for agriculture. If an agribusiness has a local bank that they work with, but that bank does not have a financing product that fits it borrowing needs, have that bank call us. We want to make more financing options available for agriculture and agribusiness in the Northeast and can work with banks to support their agricultural lending business.”
With Senter’s membership in NEAFA, it’s about the connections it provides. “I want to stay connected with the industries that I have worked with historically and that are served by Agri-Access,” said Senter. “NEAFA is an extremely well-respected organization that represents leaders in feed production and farm services in our region. These providers are vitally important to the dairy industry, poultry industry, protein producers, and many other farms in our region. The dairy and protein industries need high quality feed providers and consultants, and NEAFA members provide just that. The organization has a great leadership team and membership base, and I think Agri-Access’ support of the organization is a great way to introduce our brand to the Northeast. The Northeast is an unique place. We have excellent agricultural land, access to the water we need in most locations as well as significant variety in the agricultural commodities produced. We are also really close to a huge base of consumers in the Northeast, especially on the coast. I think a few things stand out as unique in our region. There’s a lot of diversity in the agriculture here. In an afternoon you can drive past crop farms, nurseries, wineries, dairy farms, poultry operations and more. That diversity helps the region be more resilient to the ups and downs that you might see nationally. We have really high-quality farmers in the region and a well-developed support system that includes our land grant universities, cooperative extension and industry organizations like NEAFA. Agriculture is a challenging business to be successful in and I hope that Agri-Access can play an important part in the long term success of agriculture in the Northeast.”
For more information on Agri-Access, visit https://agri-access.com/