Spain: Boost for organic production

The Council for Agriculture and Fishing from the Andalucia local government keeps a policy linked to the support of agricultural activities based in organic production. A sign of this is the support offered to the sector with different help lines established. Recently, in the province of Almeria, the Secretary General for Environment and Organic Production approved a subsidy of about 50,000 Euro to the company "Balcón de Níjar Hortofrutícola", as they are involved in organic farming. The economical help represents 50% of the needed investment to optimize its packaging and sorting processes for organic vegetables, ascending to 83,762 Euro.

According to the delegate from the Council, José Antonio Salinas, the administration "supports organic farming and companies for improvement of facilities for handling and commerce of its products".

It's not the first help the company has had from the regional administration. "Balcón de Níjar, received last year, a subsidy of 51,872 Euro, complementing other help from 2010 of 40,721Euro", they say at the Council. This way, all together, "this company got in the last years, 134,000 Euro of public funding for construction of a warehouse for sorting and packaging processes for organic products". All these subsidies are regulated in the Program of Rural Development of Andalucia 2007-2012 and are co-financed by Feader by 75%, while the central Government and the Andalucia local body, by 25%.

Source: Ideal