Final stage of the budgetary period’s first round of grants starts

This summer the final stage of the EU’s current budgetary period’s – which ends in 2020 – first round of grants starts. In the time there is left from this cycle the food industry can calculate with HUF 300 billion in funding. Almost every week a new grant programme is announced for the FMCG sector. Application is easier than in the previous cycle and projects are evaluated more rapidly than before. From the HUF 300 billion sum HUF 100 billion will come from the Rural Development Programme (VP) and HUF 200 billion will be earmarked within the framework of the Economic Development and Innovation Operative Programme (GINOP). Enterprises can already apply for GINOP funding but harmonisation talks are still taking place as regards the VP programme. The Hungarian government’s objective is to increase the food industry’s output from the current HUF 2,500 billion to HUF 3,500 billion by 2020. The main development direction is the production of quality groceries and goals include raising the profitability rate of the food industry from the current 0 percent average to 4-5 percent. Plan is that domestic sales will expand by 7-10 percent and export will increase by 30-40 percent by 2020, while 10,000-15,000 jobs will also be created in the sector. In the last week of June 2015 tenders will be announced for food industry enterprises in HUF 5-billion value. (In the remaining part of the year actors in the sector will have the chance to apply for funding from a HUF 780-billion budget through the GINOP.) SMEs can apply for non-refundable funding ranging from HUF 1.5 million to 20 million, which they can use for marketing activities abroad and for participating in trade fairs. Through grant programmes to be announced in the future, in addition to capacity expansion food industry businesses will also have the chance to make progress in the fields of energy efficiency and R&D activities.