Skopje, 28 November 2023 (MIA) - Agreements for grant support of up to EUR 10,000 have been signed Tuesday by 133 small-scale producers of food of non-animal origin for the purchase of production equipment. Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy Ljupcho Nikolovski said the purpose of the grants, worth a total of EUR 1.2 million, is to support small producers in the production and placement on the market of final Macedonian traditional products.

"We award 133 agreements, with a total value of EUR 1.2 million, and provide grant support that will be paid in advance to small producers of food of non-animal origin for the purchase of equipment," Nikolovski said.

He called on applicants to go through the agreements and be mindful of deadlines as they are extremely short, adding that financial support will be paid immediately.

Minister Nikolovski pointed out that last year they promised that 2023 will be the year for new opportunities in agriculture, which is why they created several new programs with the goal of supporting small food and beverage producers.  

"For the first time ever we created a new program to support small producers of food of animal and non-animal origin, and we upgraded the program for supporting small family wineries, which was first implemented in 2022, to also support small distilleries. With these programs, we provide grant support of EUR 10,000 for purchasing production equipment and hiring experts as support for small producers of food of animal and non-animal origin, and small family wineries, including EUR 5,000 in grants for small distilleries for hiring experts during the production of final products," Nikolovski explained.  

He noted that this development program provides support to target groups that are unable to find any other type of support through programs implemented by the Government or Ministry, or they do not have access to European programs. 

He added that this is the third program under which contracts have been concluded.

"Agreements were previously concluded for the animal origin program, and before that with small distilleries, now I want to announce that in 10 to 15 days we will sign 100 new grant contracts, worth EUR 10,000, with 100 small wineries that registered during this period and meet the criteria. I am pleased that nearly half of today's applicants are women and the other half, perhaps even more, are young people, who are already in our focus," Nikolovski noted. 

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Project “Increasing Market Employability- IME” team leader, Goran Dimovski, said IME and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy have been partners for the past decade.

"On several occasions we have followed and contributed to the Ministry's policies through the creation of the Law on Organic Production, through a series of by-laws. It has been a pleasure to have been part of the team in creating this measure to support small producers of food of non-animal origin. It was a joint effort between the Food and Veterinary Agency and small producers through their representatives from Slow Food, which helped us come up with a measure that answered their needs," Dimovski stressed.

This measure, he added, is important because it will allow small producers to provide additional equipment that will improve work conditions so that they can produce more and increase quality, and follow safety standards which will add to the value of their products.

The Swiss IME program has been working with small producers for many years to enable the introduction of new technologies, the introduction of new business models and finding new market opportunities. ssh/nn/

Photo: MIA