For the purpose of applying this Regulation, the following shall be understood by:
A. Abbreviations.
BP: Banco Popular y de Desarrollo Comunal.
B.N.C.R.: Banco Nacional de Costa Rica.
SINGLE FUND (CAJA ÚNICA): Common fund, administered by the National Treasury, into which all resources received by the Government of the Republic are deposited, whatever their source, and against which the obligations that its organs or entities have legally contracted are paid, or the resources are transferred so that they may make the corresponding payments.
CANAPALMA: Cámara Nacional de Productores de Palma.
CIFOPALMA: Interinstitutional Commission for the Promotion and Cultivation of Oil Palm (Comisión Interinstitucional para el Fomento y Cultivo de la Palma Aceitera).
TRUST No. 955 Ministry of Finance-Banco Nacional de Costa Rica: Trust (Fideicomiso).
INDER: Instituto de Desarrollo Rural.
INA: Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje.
INTA: Instituto Nacional de Innovación y Transferencia en Tecnología Agropecuaria.
MAG: Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería).
MEIC: Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Commerce (Ministerio de Economía Industria y Comercio).
MEP: Ministry of Public Education (Ministerio de Educación Pública).
MICITT: Ministry of Science, Technology, and Telecommunications (Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología y Telecomunicaciones).
MIDEPLAN: Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy (Ministerio de Planificación Nacional y Política Económica).
MINAE: Ministry of Environment and Energy (Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía).
NAMA: Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action, for its acronym in English.
ONS: National Seed Office (Oficina Nacional de Semillas).
PITTA: Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer Program (Programa de Investigación y Transferencia Tecnología Agropecuaria).
PYMPA: Registration System of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock to Certify the status of Small and Medium Agricultural Producer.
SUGESE: General Superintendence of Insurance (Súper Intendencia General de Seguros).
SBD: Development Banking System (Sistema Banca para el Desarrollo).
SENARA: National Service of Groundwater, Irrigation, and Drainage (Servicio Nacional de Aguas Subterráneas Riego y Avenamiento).
SFE: State Phytosanitary Service (Servicio Fitosanitario del Estado).
SUGEF: General Superintendence of Financial Entities (Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras).
OTC: Technical Body of CIFOPALMA (Órgano Técnico de CIFOPALMA).
B. Definitions.
1. CREDITOR: Legal entity or individual with whom a debt has been contracted.
2. ADJUSTMENTS (ADECUACIONES): These correspond to the variations made to the credit with respect to the originally agreed conditions, for the first time, to guarantee compliance with the cancellation of the credit derived from the oil palm activity.
3. AGRICULTURAL SERVICE AGENCIES OF THE MAG: Understood as Agricultural Extension Agencies. Instances to support and direct the agricultural extension service at the local level, through the attention of producers, their families, organizations, and the integration and intervention of other institutional and private instances of the agricultural sector and the local and territorial sphere.
4. BANK AGENCIES AND BRANCHES: These are the dependencies of the trustee that will offer the credit service and other banking services to the trust.
5. AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISE (AGROEMPRESA): It is a decision-making unit that combines elements of diverse nature applied to the production of goods or services of agricultural origin linked to human consumption or for animal feed.
6. PRECISION AGRICULTURE: It is a management strategy that collects, processes, and analyzes spatial and individual data and combines them with other information to support management decisions according to the estimated variability, and thus improve the efficiency in the use of resources, productivity, quality, profitability, and sustainability of oil palm production.
7. PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS: It is the payment proposal jointly agreed upon by individuals or legal entities debtors of the trust with the trustee, to pay within the time agreed by both, in monthly and consecutive installments for the benefit and agreement of both parties.
8. GUARANTOR/A (AVAL): Financial instrument created to back credit operations as collateral guarantee, in which there is a surety guarantor (fiador avalista). These guarantees mitigate the risks associated with a credit operation, for which reason the usual losses in payment defaults are assumed. This applies when there is no 100% coverage of the real guarantee and it is the responsibility of a guarantor. It is understood that every "aval" is direct and that this term is synonymous with guarantor (fiador).
9. SECOND-TIER BANKING: Financial entity that does not deal directly with credit users (second order) but channels resources to producers, directed at renovation, maintenance, and the complementary investments necessary in oil palm cultivation.
10. BENEFICIARY: Individual or legal entity that receives loans from the Trust fund. Potential beneficiaries of the Trust shall be all those small and medium producers of the oil palm activity who are located in the areas where oil palm is cultivated.
11. GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES: It is the set of agronomic management conditions necessary to ensure the sustainability of the palm activity and provide consumers with a healthier and safer food product, which reduces the risks of physical, chemical, and microbiological contamination, contemplating practices aimed at the protection of the environment and the working conditions of workers.
12. BIOSTIMULANT: Formulation of biological origin for agricultural use that promotes improvements in the productivity of a crop.
13. CLIMATE CHANGE: Understood as a change of climate attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which adds to the natural climate variability observed over comparable periods of time.
14. TRAINING: Structured and organized process of a short-term educational process, through which the acquisition, development, and updating of knowledge, attitudes, and skills are facilitated, so that the beneficiaries satisfactorily perform the development of the palm activity.
15. WORKING CAPITAL: The necessary amount of financial resources so that a small and medium oil palm producer can carry out their operations normally, as a result of impacts on oil palm production, duly documented and officially certified by the competent entities. The foregoing is subject to the availability of economic content in the trust budget to support this item.
16. ADMINISTRATION COSTS: Cost of the trustee's fees.
17. PRODUCTION COSTS: Costs required to develop the productive activity of oil palm, such as inputs, labor, transportation, equipment, and materials.
18. CREDIT: Contract by which an individual or legal entity temporarily obtains a sum of money from another, in exchange for interest compensation and the repayment of the principal amount.
19. DATION IN PAYMENT (DACIÓN DE PAGO): Act by which the debtor substitutes the original provision (asset) that was offered as guarantee to the creditor (with prior consent) as part of the total or partial cancellation of the debt. The original guarantee offered is that which will be presented in the act of dation in payment.
20. DISBURSEMENTS: Action of paying or delivering a sum of money through the mechanisms in force by the creditor.
21. DEBT: Obligation that an individual or legal entity has to pay a certain sum of money, according to the terms agreed in a contract.
22. DEBTOR: Individual or legal entity that has a debt with another and the obligation to fulfill it under the agreed terms and conditions.
23. ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Process in which a person converts an idea into a concrete project.
24. AMENDMENT (ENMIENDA): Product for agricultural use with the potential to improve the soil and promote an increase in crop productivity.
25. EQUIPMENT, TOOLS, AND MACHINERY FOR PRECISION AGRICULTURE: Set of instruments for increasing efficiency in the use of resources, which allow improving the productivity, quality, profitability, and sustainability of oil palm production.
26. ESTABLISHMENT: Refers to a new activity or planting in palm cultivation on land suitable for its development.
27. AGRONOMIC FACTORS: These are the agroecological elements that contribute to carrying out oil palm production at the soil, plant, atmosphere, and agronomic management level.
28. CLIMATIC FACTORS: These are climatic elements that vary from one area to another depending on several factors, such as latitude, prevailing winds, marine currents, distance from the sea, altitude, and relief; which modify, accentuate, or limit the climate elements and give rise to climatic variations.
29. EDAPHIC FACTORS: Soil condition, whether physical, biological, or chemical, that influences the processes of this natural resource.
30. TRUST BENEFICIARIES (FIDEICOMISARIOS): These shall be all those individuals and legal entities that qualify as beneficiaries within this Trust.
31. TRUST No. 955: Contract entered into between the Ministry of Finance and the Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, its addenda under Law No. 8868 and its current reform with Law No. 9817.
32. TRUSTOR (FIDEICOMITENTE): Ministry of Finance.
33. TRUSTEE (FIDUCIARIO): Banco Nacional de Costa Rica.
34. BUSINESS FINANCING: Facilitation of resources directed to producers who promote the production of goods or services for exchange, generally with economic and commercial purposes, linked to oil palm.
35. STRENGTHENING: Set of activities that seek to improve the competitiveness of the oil palm productive sector.
36. GUARANTEES: These are the mechanisms that respond proportionally to the contribution of each of the creditors, to ensure the fulfillment of an obligation.
37. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: Also known as anthropic impact or anthropogenic impact, it is the alteration or modification caused by human action on the environment.
38. INNOVATION: Any change that promotes an improvement or adaptation.
39. TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION: Refers to the introduction of new technologies and services, new processes, new sources of supply, and changes in industrial organization, which promote an improvement in the productive process, competitiveness, and services directed to consumers.
40. RESEARCH: Activity oriented to obtaining new knowledge and its application for the solution of problems or questions of a scientific and academic nature.
41. SMALL MACHINERY: A fuel-powered utensil that requires low power for its operation (less than 90 horsepower/HP), which can be used for agricultural purposes in tasks such as: drainage, soil tillage, harvest transportation, movement of materials, and for the operation of implements that are powered by coupling to a power take-off.
42. MEDIUM PRODUCER: Individual or legal entity, whose agricultural use properties dedicated to the production of oil palm (including nurseries) have a declared area range with values greater than 15 and equal to or less than 100 hectares, according to conditions determined by CIFOPALMA. In the case of self-management organizations, the values of the area parameters are divided by the number of associates of each cooperative.
43. CURRENCY: For the purposes of this Trust, the currency used is the Costa Rican colón (?).
44. MUNICIPALITY: State legal entity with its own assets, personality, and full legal capacity to execute all types of acts and contracts necessary to fulfill its purposes.
45. LIST OF SMALL AND MEDIUM PRODUCERS REGISTERED IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK: It is the "Registration System of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock to Certify the status of small and medium agricultural producer (PYMPA)", according to Executive Decree No. 37911-MAG of August 19, 2013, published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta, No. 177 of September 16, 2013.
46. NOVATION OF DEBTOR: Consists of the substitution of the original debtor by a third party who assumes one or more obligations of the first, with the express consent of the creditor.
47. ASSOCIATIVE ORGANIZATION: It is that organization with lawful purposes whose sole and exclusive purpose is not profit or gain. For the purposes of this regulation, the methodology defined by MEIC to define SMEs will be used, whose calculation will be made in accordance with the number of associates and not employees, as described: Small: According to MEIC methodology, the result of its calculation is less than 35. Medium: According to MEIC methodology, the result of its calculation is between 35 and 100. Large: According to MEIC methodology, the result of its calculation is greater than 100.
48. PARTIAL PAYMENTS: Payments in installments that the client can make regardless of the status of the credit operation (overdue or up to date).
49. PALM GROWER (PALMICULTOR): That individual or legal entity that is engaged or will be engaged in the productive activity of oil palm.
50. PALM KERNEL AND ITS FRACTIONS: Oil palm oil extracted from the biological seed of the oil palm fruit. It has a liquid phase and a solid phase; its fractions are palm kernel stearin and palm kernel olein.
51. SMALL PRODUCER: Individual or legal entity, whose agricultural use properties dedicated to the production of oil palm (including nurseries) have a declared area range with values equal to or less than 15 hectares, according to conditions determined by CIFOPALMA. In the case of self-management organizations, the values of the area parameters are divided by the number of associates of each cooperative.
52. PAYMENT FREQUENCY: It is the agreement reached by the parties to make payments (monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual, or at maturity), the form of payment (advance or arrears), the modality (fixed or adjustable).
53. GRACE PERIOD: Period that provides a time interval during which no contributions to the loan principal need to be paid.
54. INDIVIDUAL: A natural person who acts as the center of imputation of legal situations and, therefore, is a subject with rights and obligations.
55. LEGAL ENTITY: Organized complex of persons and goods to which the law recognizes legal personality directed to the purpose of supporting the palm activity.
56. NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN: Strategy designed by the Government of Costa Rica to face national challenges, seize current opportunities, and reactivate the country's economy, with the main objective of promoting national progress and increasing the well-being of all Costa Ricans.
57. PLANTATION: Area dedicated to the cultivation of oil palms.
58. PLEDGE (PRENDA): Contract and right in rem over a movable asset that guarantees the fulfillment of an obligation, registered before the Public Registry of Property, which materializes through an executory process before a court.
59. LOAN: Credit operation, in which the trustee makes disbursements from the trust fund to a beneficiary, who undertakes to return the loaned capital and interest, within the terms and conditions agreed between both parties.
60. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY: Government and private actions for the development of objectives aimed at improving the environment, conserving the natural principles of human life, and fostering sustainable development.
61. POLICIES FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE TRUST: Decision-making process established by CIFOPALMA for the administration of the Trust.
62. POLICY: Insurance contract to reduce the risk of payment default.
63. FINAL PRODUCT OF OIL PALM: Oil derived from the oil palm fruit, both from the mesocarp and the endocarp.
64. EXTENSIONS TO THE GRACE PERIOD: These correspond to the extension or variation of the grace period term for payment to principal, determined in the corresponding legal document. The agreed conditions of the original credit will remain the same.
65. PROJECT: An innovative task that involves a series or ordered set of antecedents, studies, and planned and interrelated activities, which require the decision on the use of resources aimed at achieving defined objectives, in a certain period, in a delimited geographical area and for a group of beneficiaries, solving problems or satisfying a need.
66. AUCTION OF ASSETS: Process that will be initiated once the asset that was under guarantee has been awarded.
67. ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY: It is a legal term referring to the imputability of assessing a negative or positive action that generates an impact of the palm activity on the environment.
68. CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY: These are the responsibility actions that each organization has with its environment, defined as the active and voluntary contribution to social, economic, and environmental improvement by companies, generally with the objective of improving their competitive, value, and added value situation.
69. RATE REVIEW: Assessment and authorization of changes in the interest rate, in accordance with market behavior and the situation of international and national prices by CIFOPALMA.
70. READJUSTMENTS (READECUACIONES): Reclassification of the credit operation as a special operation, for a maximum of three times, to guarantee compliance with the cancellation of the credit derived from the oil palm activity; which also applies to portfolio purchases.
71. DEBT PAYMENT READJUSTMENT: These are the new conditions in the payment of the principal obligation, the interest rate, and the term agreed between the parties.
72. REDUCTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: Lessening the effect that human activity produces on the environment.
73. YIELDS (RENDIMIENTOS): Productivity per unit area in a given period of time.
74. RENOVATION: Action of replanting the perennial crop of oil palm due to its impossibility to harvest, which occurs in response to the height of the plant when it reaches the end of its productive cycle, or due to a fortuitous event or force majeure.
75. REPLANTING (REPLANTACIONES): Action or effect of planting again in case of plant losses due to disease or pests in the first, second, or third year on an established farm.
76. NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM (SISTEMA BANCARIO NACIONAL): The set of financial institutions or banking entities related to the national economy, which collaborates in the execution of monetary, credit, savings, and investment policy and—when the entity is state-owned—in the custody and administration of the community's bank deposits. The National Banking System is composed of the Banco Central de Costa Rica, Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, Banco de Costa Rica, Banco Popular, and the private commercial banks, established and administered in accordance with Law No. 1644, Organic Law of the National Banking System (Ley Orgánica del Sistema Bancario Nacional).
77. COMMERCIAL COMPANIES (SOCIEDADES MERCANTILES): This is the legal entity whose purpose is to carry out acts of commerce in exchange for profit or gain. For the purposes of this regulation, the methodology defined by MEIC to define SMEs (PYME) will be used, whose calculation will be made in accordance with the number of employees and not associates, as described:
Small (Pequeña): According to the MEIC methodology, the result of its calculation is less than 35.
Medium (Mediana): According to the MEIC methodology, the result of its calculation is between 35 and 100.
Large (Grande): According to the MEIC methodology, the result of its calculation is greater than 100.
78. SUSTAINABILITY (SOSTENIBILIDAD): Commitment to incorporate social, environmental, economic, and ethical factors into the strategic decision-making process, seeking to guarantee its permanence over time.
79. SUB-LOAN (SUBPRÉSTAMO): Loan derived from the principal loan.
80. OIL PALM BY-PRODUCT (SUBPRODUCTO DE PALMA ACEITERA): Those generated in the field (leaves and trunks) and those generated in the extraction process, fiber or empty fruit bunches, effluents, palm kernel meal, and palm kernel shell (pericarp).
81. SUBSIDIZED RATE (TASA AUXILIADA): The Central Bank's passive base rate plus the administrative cost.
82. INTEREST RATE (TASA DE INTERÉS): Amount of money representing a percentage of the credit or loan that has been required and that the debtor must pay to the lender.
83. TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (TRANSFERENCIA DE TECNOLOGÍA): Process through which scientific and technological knowledge is delivered to develop new applications, new products, or the generation of new services.
84. PHYTOSANITARY DISORDER (TRASTORNO FITOSANITARIO): Production problem related to one or several pathogens (insects, fungi, bacteria, nematodes, vertebrate pests, viruses, and phytoplasmas) and any other biotic or abiotic agent or physiological disorder that affects the development and production of oil palm, due to alterations in the agroecosystem.
85. NUTRITIONAL DISORDER (TRASTORNO NUTRICIONAL): Effects on crop development associated with the deficiency or imbalance of macro and micro nutrients from the chemical, physical, and microbiological point of view of the soil.
86. FINANCIAL VIABILITY (VIABILIDAD FINANCIERA): Financial feasibility or capacity of the project to generate a profit above the defined cost of capital.
87. TECHNICAL VIABILITY (VIABILIDAD TÉCNICA): The possibility a project has of creating relationships and linkages with the actors involved in it, for the achievement of objectives, overcoming threats, and the creative use of opportunities imposed by the environment at the political, economic, social, cultural, technological, and environmental level.
88. VIABLE (VIABLE): Possibility of carrying out or completing a project.
Guiding Principles (Fundamentos Orientadores).