The Portuguese Minister of Agriculture, Maria do Céu Albuquerque, announced last Saturday in Lisbon a new package of exceptional measures to support the agricultural sector, in order to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, for an amount of approximately 140 million euros.

The package presents an exceptional transfer of the second pillar to Direct Payments, with a financial envelope of 2021-27, for an amount of 85 million euros, to be applied in the 2020 campaign.

This instrument, to be notified to the European Commission, "is designed to benefit all farmers, but with positive discrimination in support of small farmers, introducing a principle of marked degressivity," said the government member.

In addition to this measure, it was announced that no distribution will be made in measure 9 of PDR2020 - Maintenance of agricultural activity in disadvantaged areas, which will mean an increase of around 25 million euros.

A subsidized credit line from the Ministry of Agriculture, specific to the flower sector, will also be opened, for an amount of 30 million euros.

Maria do Céu Albuquerque clarified that "these measures will have a double positive effect: they help reduce the interruptions experienced by farmers in 2020 and mobilize funds to continue developing the sector."

Negotiation of a proposal by the European Commission, which will follow its inter-institutional circuit by the Council and the European Parliament, on the possibility of new measures to support the affected sectors is still ongoing, using the Rural Development Program, which may come to mobilize up to 35 million euros.

“Through these and the previous measures already presented, we want to help mitigate the losses resulting from the decrease in demand, mainly due to the closure of the Horeca channel. But we also want to guarantee the necessary conditions so that our producers and farmers can fulfill what will be required when this channel is reopened, which is so important for the viability of the sector. We want our producers and farmers to be part of this economic recovery, contributing and recovering the growth rate that characterized the agri-food sector, before the emergence of this pandemic, and the positive evolution of the trade balance, verified in recent years. It is in this sense that we are working ”, concluded the Minister of Agriculture.