Within the EU4AGRI, EU4AGRI-Recovery and EU4BusinessRecovery projects, funded by the European Union, a public call for grants for investments in processing capacities and marketing of agri-food products in Bosnia and Herzegovina was published today. Through this public call, worth 3 million BAM, the European Union will support investments in the processing capacities of the agri-food industry through the introduction of innovations and development of new and / or improvement of existing products, marketing tools, and ensuring business continuity and safe and healthy working environment in BiH.

The implementation of these projects aims to support the modernization of the agri-food sector and the improvement of the rural economy. The main goal is to increase the competitiveness of agricultural production, businesses, and services by mitigating the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on agri-food companies and rural tourism operators, ensuring the continuity of their business.

Crafts, entrepreneurs, cooperatives and companies that are actively involved in winemaking, processing of olives, fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, egg processing, processing and canning of fish, processing of cereals, mushrooms, herbs, herbs and honey can apply for the public call. Support funds per application may range from 30,000 BAM to 300,000 BAM (excluding VAT). For each project, the applicant has to provide its own co-financing in the amount of at least 35% of the total amount of the proposed investment, while 65% of the investment costs are financed by the European Union through this public call.

The deadline for submitting applications is December 3, 2021, by 5:00 p.m. All interested applicants can access the public call directly via the website eu4agri.ba. Through the EU4AGRI project, 45 investments of Bosnian farmers and companies with investments worth a total of 10.7 million BAM have been supported so far, of which 6.3 million BAM were financed by the EU.

Under the EU4AGRI, EU provides support to strengthen the competitiveness of agriculture and rural development in BiH. Through EU4AGRI-Recovery, EU supports Bosnia and Herzegovina in mitigating the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on agri-food companies and rural tourism operators, and ensuring the continuity of their operations, while EU4BusinessRecovery reduces the consequences of the pandemic on agricultural and tourism companies. , micro, small and medium enterprises. The European Union has set aside 38m euros for all three projects.

The projects are implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in partnership with the Czech Development Agency (for EU4AGRI and EU4AGRI-Recovery) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the International Labor Organization (ILO) (for EU4BusinessRecovery ).