The Agency for Financing Rural Investments announces the extension until December 27, 2023, of the application submission period for funding through the National Program for the Development and Support of the Food Industry, INVESTALIM.

The submission and registration of funding agreement requests will take place within 30 calendar days, starting from November 27, 2023, at 4:30 PM, until December 27, 2023, at 4:30 PM.

The National Program for the Development and Support of the Food Industry, INVESTALIM, is implemented from 2023 to 2026 through the INVESTALIM State Aid Scheme, with a total budget of 590 million euros provided from the state budget.

The annual allocation for investment project funding is approximately 147.5 million euros. The application submission session opened on October 27, 2023, at 8:30 AM.

The Applicant's Guide and its annexes can be found on the official website of the Agency, www.afir.ro, on the page dedicated to the State Aid Scheme – click here for direct access to the page. Based on these documents, potential beneficiaries can begin preparing the documentation required for accessing INVESTALIM funds.

Regarding the types of expenses generated by investments in tangible assets, it is specified that eligible expenses include the modernization/rehabilitation of infrastructure for conditioning, storage, and/or processing owned by the applicants. Additionally, expenses related to the purchase of buildings and associated rental costs within the Investment Plan are considered ineligible.

Eligible beneficiaries for this type of support can be newly established or existing enterprises, both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises, established according to Law no. 31/1990 on commercial companies, republished, with subsequent amendments and completions.

The intensity of non-repayable support ranges from 30% to 70%, and the level of aid that an enterprise can benefit from can reach a total maximum of 57,750,000 euros.

The eligible activities for which funding is provided through the INVESTALIM State Aid Scheme include the processing and preservation of meat, the manufacture of meat products, the processing and preservation of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, the processing and preservation of potatoes, the production of fruit and vegetable juices, the processing and preservation of fruits and vegetables, the manufacture of oils and fats, the production of dairy products and cheeses, the production of milling products, bread, cakes, and fresh pastry products, as well as the production of sugar.