The Regional Secretary for Agriculture and the Environment highlighted today the "significant increase" of regional funds allocated to agriculture in 2016, amounting to 11.9 million Euros.

Luís Neto Viveiros spoke at the end of a hearing at the Committee on Economic Affairs of the Legislative Assembly on the Plan and Budget proposals for 2016, pointing out that the overall investment for the sector provides an increase of 18 percent next year, that is, 24.8 million Euros more compared to 2015.

The proposed plan for 2016 provides 168.7 million Euros for agriculture, forestry and rural development. In this context, the Regional Secretary stressed that "a significant portion of this amount" of regional funds is directed to the milk sector.

Speaking to journalists, Neto Viveiros stated that "the programme developed by the Government of the Azores restructures the agricultural sector and the dairy sector, in particular," includes various additional measures to support producers.

Such support, he added, is intended to minimise the impact resulting from the Russian ban and the drop of consumption in emerging markets at a time of the milk quota system is being dismantled.

Luís Neto Viveiros recalled that the measures introduced include, among other things, the creation of important support mechanisms in the Region, such as the line of credit amounting to 30 million Euros, designated as Agrocrédito; it is intended to strengthen the financial capacity of farms and has been in force since August.

The second support mechanism, recently announced by the President of the Regional Government, provides "an increase that will be around 30% of the interest charged" by credit institutions to finance investments made by farmers in their farms, stressed the Regional Secretary.

The government official also stressed the overall investment of about 15 million Euros in the regional network of slaughterhouses, of which six million Euros will be supported by the regional budget, thus ensuring the commitment taken for the current legislative period towards the construction of the slaughterhouses on Faial and Graciosa and the improvement of the slaughterhouses on S. Miguel and Terceira.