The Government of the Azores has authorised the Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry to allocate the maximum amount of 2,560,000 Euros to “financially support the ongoing organisational and economic restructuring of the Azorean milk sector.”

Under the terms of a Resolution of the Council of the Government, published in the Official Journal on Monday, the aforementioned amount “will be allocated to the entities comprised by the protocol signed with the Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry or with any of its departments.”

The same Resolution, which comes into force on Tuesday, also authorises Noé Rodrigues “to sign new protocols or authorise the introduction of amendments to existing protocols, whenever deemed necessary to the achievement of the stipulated goals.”

The Government justifies this decision, reminding the need to “deepen and consolidate” the ongoing process of “business restructuring, concentration and coordination of joint activities in order to reduce costs and ensure better efficiency levels.”

According to the Azorean Government, “the assistance provided to the debt reduction of industrial units, which are economically and socially fundamental, has contributed to the substantial reduction of delayed payments to agricultural producers as well as to the achievement of solvency ratios eligible for investment support measures.”

Moreover, “the investment in the economic recovery and financial stability of the regional agro-industrial sector, particularly in the cooperative dairy sector, has brought an unprecedented dynamics in the renewal and modernisation of its structures.”

The decision taken by the Regional Government also takes into account the fact that “some investments, developed to promote the full integration of the various agents of the milk sector, have taken place in a context of economic and financial adversities, marked by difficulties, uncertainties and credit restrictions.”