Payments Lag in Raqqa
Farmers across Raqqa governorate who delivered this season's wheat to state collection centers say they are still waiting to be paid, weeks after handing over their crops. As of mid-August 2026, only part of the payment paperwork had been cleared, leaving many growers without the cash they had counted on.
The Numbers Behind the Delay
Branches of the Agricultural Cooperative Bank in Raqqa received about 3,600 wheat purchase invoice lists for the season. Roughly 1,113 of them — close to 31% — had been processed for payment by the time the situation was reported. The governorate took in some 300,000 tons of wheat, a figure announced on 14 July 2026.
Growers can draw an advance of 25% of the value of their deliveries through the "Sham Cash" digital payment service while they wait for the remaining balance to clear.
Debt and Rising Costs
Several farmers said they had financed seeds, fertilizer and the harvest through borrowing, and that the wait has deepened their financial strain. With cultivation costs high and returns thin, some described repeated visits to offices in an effort to collect the full value of their invoices rather than settle for partial installments.
The squeeze lands hardest on smallholders, for whom the wheat payment is often the main cash inflow of the year and the means to repay debts taken on at planting time.
Bank Cites Liquidity
The director of the Agricultural Cooperative Bank's Raqqa branch attributed the pace of disbursement to available liquidity and to the established payment procedures, which route funds through the Central Bank of Syria. Settlements are made in Syrian pounds (SYP), and the branch said it was working through the lists in sequence.
Why It Matters
Raqqa is one of the country's main wheat-growing areas, and the speed of settlement shapes how much farmers can reinvest in the next planting cycle. Delays in releasing payment for a 300,000-ton harvest ripple through rural incomes and the wider farm economy at a moment when many households have little financial margin.