TIRANA, Dec. 16/ATA/- The EU Ambassador Luigi Soreca together with the Minister of Agriculture Bledi Çuçi launched today the third IPARD call and the Europe is here campaign dedicated to agriculture.
“We are launching the “Europe is here” campaign dedicated to agriculture. Secondly we are opening the third call for applications under the IPARD program. And thirdly, we are announcing a new call for applications in the fisheries sector,” the EU Ambassador to Albania Soreca said.
“Almost 40% of the population in Albania still live in rural areas. The agrifood sector contributes 20% of Albania’s GDP,” Soreca said.
“The EU has made available 100 million euros to support the modernization of Albanian agriculture during the last 10 years. The size of this investment makes the EU the biggest supporter of Albania’s agrifood sector together with “Europe is here” campaign, which we launched in July,” the EU Ambassador, Soreca added.
In his remarks, the EU Ambassador Soreca added that, through the IPARD program have been made available 71 million euros as direct grants to support investments.
“IPARD is already a great success. There have been over 700 applications during the first two calls while 236 farms have benefited from EU funds,” Soreca said. //a.i/
