The focus of the fourth call is: farm diversification and business development, with a focus on Rural and Nature Tourism, handicrafts and manufacturing industry, and Renewable Energy Production.

“An applicant can benefit more than one investment project, but the overall eligible investment costs per applicant, for this measure should not exceed the amount of 600,000 Euros for the entire duration of the program period. The percentage of public support is equal to: 65% of the overall eligible investment costs, ” according to the announcement of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
MoARD announces the eligibility criteria applicable to measure 7 that IPARD II has defined in the 4th call.

Thus one criterion is the construction or improvement of immovable properties, to the extent of the market value of the property.

Another is the purchase of new machinery and equipment, including software, to the extent of the market value of the property.

The third is that the overall costs associated with investment costs such as consulting fees such as those for architects, engineers, etc., feasibility studies, business plan preparation, will be eligible to be reimbursed up to a ceiling of 12% of the costs defined. The maximum cost for the preparation of the business plan should be 4% of the mentioned costs without exceeding the value equal to EUR 5000.

Fourth, the overall costs are considered eligible if the project to which they belong has been selected and contracted by ARDA. The applicant must prove ownership of the land / building or buildings related to the investment or the right of use for a period of at least 10 years from the date of submission of the application. Only expenses incurred after the signing of the grant contract between the recipient of support and ARDA (excluding general costs for the respective investment costs) are eligible.
Fifth, investment projects remain eligible for future EU funding, provided they do not undergo substantial modifications within five years of the final ARDA payment.
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The Agency for Agricultural and Rural Development (ARDA) reminds that it welcomes even today (January 25 until 24:00hrs) the applications of all farmers and entrepreneurs who want to access grant support for investments in agriculture.

Applications for the third call of the IPARD II program are open from 10 December 2020 to January 26, 2021.
The total budget available for this call is EUR 29.1 million of which 75% or 21.82 million euros contributed by EU contribution and 25% or 7.28 million euros from the state budget.

The size grant starts from 60% of the allowed investments. For young farmers the size grant goes to 65% and for farmers in mountainous areas it goes up to 70%.

The third call, for measure 1 “Investments in physical assets on agricultural farms” will support all sectors set out in the IPARD II program, milk, meat, fruits and vegetables and vineyards.

Measure 3, “Investments in physical assets for processing and marketing of agricultural and seafood” will only support the fruit and vegetable processing sector.

The Agricultural and Rural Development Agency has held informative sessions with farmers for several weeks on how they can apply to be beneficiaries of these schemes.

The first two calls of this program received about 800 applications with 241 beneficiaries of IPARD II funds, a co-financing of Albanian government and EU, concluding contracts so far.
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