The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry has submitted the calendars regarding the payment of support to producers, under the POSEI programme, to the Agricultural Federation of the Azores. The payments will be made until June 30, 2010.
During the meeting that was held in Ponta Delgada on Thursday, Noé Rodrigues also disseminated the amount of the support awarded to the sector until December 31, 2009 and stated that the amount paid to producers was much higher than the amount paid last year, “which demonstrates that we are working better to speed up the payment of support to which farmers are entitled.”
With regard to the investment projects of farmers, there is a significant number of submitted applications, many of which have already been contracted and paid.
Nevertheless, Noé Rodrigues acknowledged the excessive bureaucracy imposed by the European Union for the compliance with the monitoring and contract procedures of these projects.
Furthermore, the ordinance of the Azorean Government which will establish a supplementary support for the purchase a stock of fibre food products in order to help the Azorean products to overcome the difficulties related to the unusual reduction in forage production.