The Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB) urges authorities to increase the budget for the intervention supporting investments in agricultural processing and marketing due to high demand and rapid exhaustion of funds.
The Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB) has expressed its satisfaction with the high response from businesses regarding the intervention for investments in the processing and/or marketing of agricultural products. The available budget of €10.3 million was exhausted within two hours.
Many businesses with mature and sustainable investment plans could not submit applications due to the rapid depletion of funds. This indicates strong demand and interest in investments in the agricultural sector, as well as insufficient resources to meet market needs.
OEB previously indicated that the intervention would attract high interest and that the available resources would only suffice for a limited number of businesses. This could hinder the main goal of upgrading the Cypriot agri-food industry and the primary sector.
Therefore, OEB proposed to the Ministries of Agriculture, Rural Development & Environment and Energy, Trade & Industry to increase the budget to at least €15 million, similar to previous programming periods, which OEB considers still low.
OEB appeals to the authorities to increase the intervention fund to enable more businesses to implement investments. The federation remains available for cooperation to ensure more effective use of European and national resources for the benefit of the Cypriot economy.
