The amounts allocated to measure 121 - modernisation of farms, go as high as 150 million euros and those for measure 123 - adding value to agricultural and forestry products, have 80 million euros available.
'A major project I care about and which started today is measure 123, by which those who associate can submit projects starting today till January 18, 2013 to build those storehouses through which the Romanian fruit and vegetables can reach the standards required by hypermarkets and the final consumer,' said Minister of Agriculture Daniel Constantin on Monday, during a meeting with farmers at the Institute of Pomology Maracineni.
He said that the lack of these storehouses, where the Romanian produce is stored in optimal conditions, is the main cause why the Romanian farmers have no access to hypermarkets.
'We want to build as many storehouses in Romania as possible so that the Romanian fruit and vegetables should be preserved in an area with controlled temperature, as we saw today in Maracineni. We have talked to hypermarkets representatives many times and asked them why they do not buy Romanian products. The answer was simple, the Romanian fruit and vegetables are not labelled, packed and sorted the way it should and secondly, they are available only for three to four months in Romania,' added Constantin.
During the project submitting session opened on Monday, all those who associate with the farmers in Romania can submit projects.
The ministry official stressed that a new session of project submitting was opened on measure 121. 'This measure along with measure 123 had their funds depleted, namely all funds have already been consumed by you, the beneficiaries, but we deemed it necessary to talk in Brussels and modify the National Programme of Rural Development, so as to stress the collecting storehouses, and on measure 121, to place stress on the animal husbandry reproduction farms,' said MADR chief.
