The rescheduled area and animal-based support payments have started

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The new EU support cycle that started last year places a more complicated burden on producers and the public administration than ever before, which is why the government is making extraordinary efforts to provide farmers with the greatest possible help amid the market and financial difficulties.Therefore, with the temporary reallocation of government office and treasury resources, payments were made weeks earlier than the original schedule in several support titles. In this week’s payment package, the value of which exceeds 55 billion forints, the new legal title, the Agro-ecological Program (AÖP), also appeared in the order of 35.6 billion forints. Thanks to this, 45 percent of the funds available in the case of the AÖP reached almost 37,000 stakeholders, approximately 60 percent of the grant applicants. In several member states – where the AÖP is not implemented in a model similar to the Hungarian one – they will not be able to meet the deadline of June 30 for making payments, as set out in EU legislation.

375 million HUF for rice growers, 406 million HUF for vegetable growers, 1.2 billion HUF for supporting the cultivation of industrial vegetable crops, another 226 million HUF for sheep farmers, 130 million HUF for supporting dairy cows, while 694 million HUF for supporting the cultivation of fibrous protein fodder plants million forints. This week, a significant amount of money was also transferred to the beneficiaries of the popular Agricultural Environment Management (AKG) and Ecological Transition and Maintenance (ÖKO) subsidies. In the case of the former, 5,000 customers received an amount exceeding HUF 9 billion, and in the case of the latter, HUF 3,7 billion reached 1,500 producers in these days. In addition to area- and animal-based payments, several additional investment and rural development grants were disbursed this week. Beneficiaries of investment and other tenders received a total of almost HUF 6 billion in the current round, in the case of 28 different support schemes. In terms of value, the development of food processing plants should be highlighted, where the allocation of support exceeding HUF 2.3 billion helps the modernization of the sector.

AM