The Ministry of Rural Development and Food has announced the 2nd call for proposals for the subproject “Innovation and Green Transition in Agricultural Processing” of the Action: “Economic Transformation of the Agricultural Sector” of the Recovery and Resilience Fund. The subproject concerns investment projects in the field of processing of agricultural products, the result of which is either agricultural or non-agricultural products.

The state aid is 65 million euros and is financed by the Recovery and Resilience Fund for the period 2022-2025.

According to the published call, eligible beneficiaries are legal entities owned by either small and medium-sized enterprises or large companies that maintain simple and/or double-entry bookkeeping and meet one of the following conditions:

a) These are Producer Groups (OP), Producer Organizations (OP), Associations of Producer Organizations, Agricultural Cooperatives (AS), Agricultural Corporate Partnerships (AES) and limited liability companies, the majority share of which is owned by agricultural cooperatives of Law 4673/2020 “Agricultural Cooperatives and other provisions.

b) They are social cooperative enterprises of Law 4430/2016 and commercial law companies, except for those in the above case a) that: carry out contract farming and at least 40% per year of the value of the raw materials used in the extended investment is agricultural contract farming product. The obligation to implement contract farming starts from the date of completion of the implementation of the investment, and contracts have a minimum period of 3 years.

c) They are social cooperative enterprises of Law 4430/2016 and commercial law firms, with the exception of those in case a) above, which annually demonstrate the degree of verticalization, using agricultural products of their own production in the amount of at least 40% of the value of the agricultural product, which they use as raw material.

d) Registered entities that complete registration procedures before a decision is made to approve individual assistance may also be considered beneficiaries.

Each potential beneficiary may submit more than one application for assistance per VAT number, and the total budget for all applications submitted must not exceed the upper limit of the allowable budget.

According to published data, investments in tangible and intangible assets are increasing. The investment has reasonable implementation costs and must be documented in writing in a clear, specific and up-to-date manner in the economic and technical study submitted. Eligible costs include, but are not limited to:

– Purchase of land, construction or modernization of real estate.

– Configuration of the surrounding space in accordance with the needs of the object.

– Vehicles (EVs, zero CO2 vehicles, vehicles with less than 50g/km CO2 emissions) by which the company transports raw materials and products within the divisional area.

– Acquisition, transportation and installation of equipment, including laboratory equipment, to the extent that it serves for the operation of the installation.

– The cost of computerization of the enterprise.

– Accessibility costs for people with disabilities.

– Intangible costs such as the acquisition of software and patents, licenses for intellectual property rights, trademarks, etc. In addition, it is possible to obtain quality assurance certifications from relevant organizations (such as ISO, HACCP, BRC GlobalStandards, IFS FoodStandard, GLOBALG .AP, etc.).

– Consulting services provided by external consultants. These services must not be ongoing or occasional and must not be associated with the normal operating expenses of the business, such as regular tax and legal advice or advertising services.

– Participation of mass media in exhibitions.

– Investment assistance to promote the production of energy from renewable sources.

The requested budget limits for each funding application depend on the size of the business and range from EUR 500,000 to EUR 7,500,000 for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and from EUR 2,000,000 to EUR 12,500,000 for large businesses. The intensity of assistance can reach up to 55% depending on the size of the business and the area of ​​investment.

The term for the implementation of investment projects is set at 18 months with the possibility of an extension of 6 months, which will be granted either for force majeure reasons or on special justification. In any case, the deadline for submitting the last application for payment of assistance does not exceed May 31, 2025.

Detailed information about the announcement can be found at http://minagric.gr under the link “Actions of the Recovery and Resilience Fund”.

Applications are accepted until 07.12.2023.

* Ms. M. Paspalari is the Managing Director of AMBIO SA.