Spain increases its request for community aid for fruit and vegetables by 15%
The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment (MAPAMA) has informed the European Commission of funding needs for 2017, under the fruit and vegetable aid scheme, of 270 million euros. Of this amount, which represents an increase of 15% compared to the 2016 request and 18% compared to 2015, 23 million will be allocated to measures for the prevention and management of market crises, which is 8% of the total.
This request is based on a forecast that is made at the beginning of each year, depending on the operational programs approved by the Autonomous Communities so that the final aid will be approximately 80% -85% of that figure
The beneficiaries of these funds will be 491 organizations of producers distributed in 15 Autonomous Communities, emphasizing Andalusia, Murcia, Valencian Community, Catalonia, Extremadura and Aragon.
Spain is the second Member State to receive this aid with 25% of the total of the European Union and only behind Italy. It should be noted that in Spain this aid has followed an upward trend since its creation in 1997.
The system of aid to the fruit and vegetable sector, established and developed by Community legislation, means that producer organizations which form an operational fund have the possibility of accessing aid for actions to improve production and marketing infrastructures, quality and environmental improvement, research, training and advice, as well as market crisis prevention and management, among others, in the context of multiannual operational programs.
Thus, producers’ organizations can benefit from EU aid of 50% of the actions carried out (60% in certain cases) and paid for with that operational fund, up to the limit of 4.1% of the value of the Marketed production of each producer organization, which can be raised to 4.6% for crisis prevention and management actions.
This is a line of aid that has been experiencing steady growth, so that in 2014 already reached 201 million euros of EU aid, which in 2014 amounted to 184 million euros
Source: MAPAMA
