With IPARD 3 in seven years in the Macedonian agriculture will enter investments of 250 million euros

With the IPARD 3 Program, the time frame of which is from 2021 - 2027, investments of 250 million euros will enter the Macedonian agriculture. The program is projected at 97 million euros, although the possibility of increasing funds is not ruled out, and the first call is expected to be announced in the period June - July 2022.

As it was said at today's ninth session on "Challenges in the programming and implementation of the IPARD III program (2021 - 2027)" held by Working Group 1 - Agriculture and Rural Development hosted by the EU National Convention in the country, the program provides eight measures of which four are already accredited, one is pre-programmed but not accredited and three are completely new. Another, the ninth measure is announced.

Three new agri-environmental measures are envisaged: for organic production, for local action groups (LAGs) and for agricultural advisory services. The last measure announced is in the field of forestry, and it will be introduced in three years from now.

The program also has several innovations, some of which have already been adopted, and some of which are under negotiation. One of the best, according to the authorities and producers, is the advance financing of 50 percent of the return on investment for which you are applying. This means, for example, that if you apply for a project worth 100.000 euros for a measure where the return on investment is 60 percent, the applicant, through advance financing, by concluding the IPARD agreement will receive up to 50 percent of the funds or 30.000 euros.

A novelty is that as beneficiary of IPARD funds will be able to call the so-called joint legal entity for collective investments in primary production or processing industry. It can be a cooperative, organization or group of producers, a legal entity formed by several individual producers registered in MAFWE, as well as a legal entity formed by an association or association.

With the new IPARD 3 Program, it is planned to increase the minimum investment threshold, which has been at a very low level so far.

- The final version of the IPRAD 3 Program should be submitted in Brussels on November 15, 2021 and adopted by the European Commission in mid-December or before the end of the year. The implementation will start in the middle of 2022, with the first public calls, and the last payments can be realized until December 31, 2030. The value of IPARD 3 is 97 million euros. Our expectations are that this projection will not go down, but may increase. The Program includes all accredited measures so far, for investments in primary production, processing industry, diversification and development of businesses in rural areas and technical assistance (event organizations, trainings), said Zivko Brajkovski from the IPARD Management Body, presenting the draft version of the IPARD 3 Program.

Whether the first call will be published in June - July 2022, depends on Brussels.

- This time Brussels is late. The regulation for implementation of IPARD 3 was adopted nine days ago, on September 20 this year, but in addition to that, for the needs of the realization of the Program, more regulations and agreements should be adopted - documents for legal basis. If the Program is adopted in December, I hope that we will be able to announce the first call for accredited measures in June - July 2022, said Brajkovski.

Regarding IAPRD 2, it was said at the session, all available funds will be used.

- The total budget of IPARD 2 weighs 60 million euros and we are relatively close to its complete exhaustion. The interest for European money is great and so far not a single euro has been lost. Applications are currently being approved for the last public call, which closed on September 6th, projected at 13,5m euros. 250 applications have been received requesting a total of 32 million euros, informed the Paying Agency.

According to the Agency, the country is at the highest level, we are among all other countries in the region that use the IPARD instrument. They even ask us for expertise in technical assistance.

- We started the implementation of the Program relatively late. In 2017, the first public call was announced, with measures for investments in tangible assets for agricultural holdings, for investments in the processing industry and for the diversification of farms. A total of seven calls were published, on which 4 applications were received, and 160 contracts were concluded and received, with a total amount of EUR 2.094 million. However, all means will be exhausted, noted by the Paying Agency.