Beneficiaries

Funding is available to companies engaged in the manufactoring, processing or marketing of agricultural products. 

Applicants must 

• be in compliance with social security, welfare and insurance payments and obligations; 
• ensuring the financial sustainability of investments; 
• not be a firm in difficulty; 
• not having committed serious crimes against the State or the European Community; 
• be in compliance with the anti-mafia certification; 
• for processing and processing farms, at least two-thirds of the products must come from other suppliers.

Objectives

To improve the profitability, competitiveness and sustainability of processing and processing farms: 

• improving storage facilities and facilities; 
• restructuring, modernising and expanding plants and facilities dedicated to the processing, transformation, packaging and marketing of agricultural products; 
• setting up new structures and plants for fruit/flora/vegetable activities; 
• introducing innovative technologies and production processes; 
• increasing the environmental sustainability of production processes; 
• promoting safety at work.

Selection principles

The assessment of submeasure 4.2 shall comprise a subdivision into macro-criteria, a minimum permissible score of 40 points and a maximum permissible score of up to 100 points, as defined for:

• Territorial scopes, with the location of interventions in rural areas according to the production sector concerned, according to the priorities specified in the paragraph of the call 'Description of the focus of support', with a maximum score of 10 points.
   
• Type of operation activated, with a maximum score of 30 points per increase, compared to the situation before the investment of the economic performance of the company, determined by the investment made.
   
• Beneficiaries (with a maximum attributable score of 60) to be subattributed as specified above:
  • production sector concerned by the interventions, according to the priorities specified in the paragraph 'Description of the focus of support' (max. 15 points);
  • participation in quality schemes under Measure 3 (max. 20 points);
  • type of applicant, with bonuses to Producer organisations (POs) and Agricultural processing cooperatives recognised as POs, or which undertake to become so before being eligible for funding (points 25).

In the event of equal points, priority will be given to Applications for Support that require a lower total investment cost.

Eligible expenditure

The financing covers the costs incurred for: 

• restructuring, modernising or extending facilities for the storage, processing, processing, packaging and marketing of agricultural products;
• setting up structures for the storage, processing, processing, packaging and marketing of agricultural products for companies in the fruit/flora/vegetable sector;
• purchasing real estate already in existence at the time of purchase, net of the relevant mobile plant and equipment; 
• purchasing new plant, machinery and equipment; 
• purchasing computer applications; 
• overheads.

Scope of support
The share of the total investment covered by the loan varies according to the type of applicant, the purpose and the area in which its activity is located: 

• 50% small and medium-sized enterprises; 
• 25% large enterprises. 

The investment must be between 200,000 and 4,000,000 euros.