The wine production sector is recognized as strategically important for the development of the Serbian economy, and in addition to incentive measures that will continue in 2021, winegrowers and winemakers will be provided with favorable loans this year through a new World Bank project, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Winegrowers and winemakers will have the opportunity to modernize their equipment, mechanization and capacities through the World Bank project for improving the competitiveness of Serbian agriculture, which will, as they say for Tanjug in the ministry, enable favorable loans for agricultural production, with part of non-refundable funds.
The participation of users is 10 percent of the value of acceptable investments, commercial banks provide 40 percent through lending to farmers, and the other 50 percent are non-refundable funds provided from a World Bank loan, the Ministry of Agriculture specifies.
At the end of March, the Rulebook on the allocation of non-refundable funds within the Project for Competitive Agriculture was published, and public calls are expected to be published in the coming days.
The ministry notes that this program will significantly facilitate the possibilities of using incentives for small and medium, but commercially oriented farms, because they do not have to pre-finance the investment, but enter the realization of the investment only after approving the project and funds.
They also state that the Decree on the distribution of incentives in agriculture and rural development for 2021, among other rural development measures, plans to implement measures aimed at raising new vineyards, building and equipping wine production facilities, as well as support for improving wine quality.
The ministry specifies that after a detailed and additional analysis, given the epidemiological situation and the implementation of the new project of Competitive Agriculture of Serbia, it will determine the manner and time of implementation of support measures in 2021 in accordance with available funds.
They also say that the amount of incentives within rural development measures this year remains the same as last year, and two public calls will be realized within the IPARD program.
They remind that a total of 89 requests were submitted to last year’s Public Invitation for exercising the right to incentives for investments in processing and marketing of agricultural and food products in the wine production sector.
47 requests in the value of 5.3 billion euros were paid, while 23 requests are in the process of administrative arrangement of the submission.
According to the Rulebook which regulates incentives for raising perennial crops in 2020, 122 requests were submitted, for which the requested funds amounted to 3.2 billion euros
Out of the total number of submitted requests, 78 requests in the amount of 2.4 billion euros have been approved so far.
They note that the encouraging fact is that only in the name of bonuses for domestic varieties and the position of the terrain of the total amount, 383 million euros were approved.
The amount of incentives realized within the Ordinance on incentives for investments in processing and marketing of agricultural food products in the wine production sector and the Ordinance on incentives for physical assets of agricultural holdings through support for raising perennial vineyards is 60 percent of the investment value, minus VAT.
The maximum amount that the applicant for the construction and equipping of wineries could achieve in 2020 is 350 thousand euros, while the maximum amount for investments in perennial plantations is 700 thousand euros.
Maximum incentives in the IPARD program under Measure 1 for the grape production sector range from 5,000 to 700,000 euros, while under Measure 3 – the wine production sector reach up to one million euros.
So far, 16 IPARD requests in the viticulture sector have been submitted under Measure 1, with the requested amount of 1.26 million euros, and four projects with the amount of support of 64,746 euros have been approved.
The Ministry says that there are no approved projects in the wine production sector in Measure 3, but that 23 requests for the amount of 15.96 million euros have been submitted so far.
The minimum value of eligible costs for investments in grape production within the Competitive Agriculture Project of Serbia is 20,000 euros in dinars, and the maximum is 50,000 euros, while wine processors can plan an incentive for investments ranging from 25,000 to 400,000 euros.
The total area under vineyards, entered in the Viticultural Register, is 6,517.7 hectares, cultivated by 4,618 grape producers.
According to the data from the Wine Register, which is also kept by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, 424 wine producers are registered for wine production.
The ministry states that in 2020, a total of about 11.17 million liters of wine worth about 16 million euros were exported from Serbia, and the most to the Russian market, about 6.3 million liters, which is 56.6 percent of the total amount of exported wine.
Slightly more than 3.4 million liters were exported to the CEFTA market last year, which makes 30.5 percent of the total export in 2020.
In that market, wine exports to BiH (18.2 percent of the total exported amount of wine) and Montenegro (12.2 percent of the total exported amount of wine) dominate.
During 2020, about 835,000 liters of wine were exported to the EU market, which is 7.5 percent of last year’s total wine exports, Tanjug reports.
