Financial aid to support farmers and the milk market

Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă continued on Tuesday the consultations with the representatives of the associations of farmers, processors and the chain of large stores. The meeting at the Victoria Palace was attended by the Minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea, representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Authority for Consumer Protection, the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, the Competition Council.

“At the level of the Government and the state authorities, we have recently done our own analysis and we have solutions for the support of farmers, processors and to help the milk market, with tradition in Romania. It is important to optimize the operation of the entire production and distribution chain, from the farmer to the shelf, putting the Romanian consumer at the center of concerns. Our concern is that all Romanian citizens have access to the products necessary for a decent living”, said Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă.

The Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture presented the support measures identified at the level of the Government.

Thus, to support farmers and the milk market, financial aid will be granted in two stages. The first payments will be made starting on May 15, 2023 for the requests amounting to 21.6 million euros, submitted by dairy cow breeders until March 23, 2023. Afterwards, a second session for submitting requests will be organized payment, payments to be made, for these requests, in the second semester of 2023.

The government will bring the value of the allocated funds into line with economic realities, and as a result of a better allocation of the amounts granted to the livestock sector, farmers will benefit from compensation worth 22 million euros, for the losses caused by the war in Ukraine.

Also, to support Romanian processors in the food industry, the measure according to which processors benefit from a premium of 10% of the value of the production processed in Romania will be improved and adapted as soon as possible. The draft normative act is already in the analysis and debate of the Parliament.

At the same time, in order to encourage the utilization of milk and a healthy diet, the Government will expand and develop the “Program for schools” and “Hot meals in schools” starting from the next school year. Thus, draft normative acts will be prepared for giving dairy products to children every day they attend school classes, and not just three times a week as before, but also for updating the price of the packages that the children will benefit from and streamlining the procedures of purchase.

Also, the Government is preparing to increase the number of schools in which a hot meal or a food package is given to students who attend classes.

Following the consultations held at the Victoria Palace, the Government, the representatives of the processors and the chain of large stores agreed on a price reduction for drinking milk for a period of six months. This measure benefits the final consumer and encourages demand on the milk market, which will implicitly support farmers and processors.

“I’m glad that together we managed to find a series of solutions to unblock the milk market. But we all know that we need long-term measures. At the level of the Government, we are working on a program for the development of the agricultural sector and the food industry that will highlight Romania’s potential and guarantee food security for our citizens”, said Prime Minister Ciucă.

Consultations between farmers, processors and large store chains will continue at the level of the Ministry of Agriculture.