Minister Florin Barbu Announces New Support Program for Farmers: €60,000 per Project

Minister Florin Barbu has announced a new start-up support program for farmers in mountain areas, funded through the Ministry of Economy, according to ANZM, citing Agerpres.

In an interview with Agerpres, the Minister of Agriculture revealed that this initiative aims to integrate local products into neighborhood and retail stores across Romania by increasing production capacity through small investments.

Program Details

“We need to scale up production to integrate these products into retail and neighborhood stores. This requires small investments. That’s why I have been in discussions with my colleague from the Ministry of Economy, which has an allocation of €447 million for start-ups. This means a grant of €60,000, fully funded for newly established companies,” explained Florin Barbu.

He further proposed that €200 million from the total allocation be specifically directed toward mountain-area start-ups. The funding will support farmers with €60,000 projects, such as mobile dairy processing units in containers, equipped for producing cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products.

Investment in 2,000 Processing Units

The program aims to finance at least 2,000 such containers, which will include refrigeration systems, coagulation and packaging areas, and, most importantly, will be fully certified by sanitary-veterinary authorities. This will allow the processed products to be sold in both retail and neighborhood stores.

“We want to populate the mountains with 1,000 slaughter units and 1,000 dairy and agro-food processing units using these start-ups, through the Ministry of Economy, under a separate funding axis for agro-food products. I believe this will be a successful initiative, injecting €200 million into the mountain region,” stated Barbu.

Ensuring Market Access for Local Producers

Since all products will be processed in sanitary-veterinary-certified facilities, local producers will be able to sell their goods through cooperatives, ensuring that larger quantities reach retail stores.

“When working with local producers, they must have sanitary-veterinary authorization. We are facilitating this process so that cooperatives can collect larger quantities and supply retail stores. This is the key to success.