More than 6,000 farmers from all over the country asked for compensatory grants to the value of over 91 million lei through the Moldova Agricultural Competitiveness Project (MAC-P). The Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture said 36 million lei has been already transferred to the farmers, IPN reports.
“All the asked compensatory grants will be fully paid by the end of this year or next January at the latest. Regrettably, the number of applications is much lower than we expected because many farmers sold the fruit without asking for invoices. To receive grants, confirmative documents about the purchases of apples, plums or technical sorts of grapes, issued by the processors, need to be presented,” said Liviu Gumovschi, director of the Project Implementation Unit.
The compensatory grants are intended for small-scale apple, plum and grape growers, with farms of less than 15 hectares. The grant represents 1.93 lei/kg for apples, 1.35 lei/kg for plums, 1.54 lei/kg for European sorts of grapes and 0.77 lei/kg for “Isabella” sorts for an average crop of up to 40 t/ha for apples, of up to 18 t/ha for plums and of up to 12 t/ha for grapes.
In July 2015, there was launched the MAC-P’s component “Compensatory Sales Support Grants” to support the apple, plum and grape growers that were affected by the import restrictions imposed by Russia in 2014. The value of the component is US$12 million. The additional financing for the MAC-P project was provided by the Wolrd Bank based on an agreement signed on May 21, 2015.
