Farmer with eligible project, raw material and stable clients, seeks financing ASAP

Out of 100 farmers only six have completed rural development projects with money from the European Union, while the rest of eligible applications are on stand-by because banks do not grant co-financing. Out of the eight billion euros guaranteed by the Brussels authorities in form of European funds to be injected in the Romanian agriculture, 1.7 billion euros have been attracted for projects that passed the eligibility test and were concluded between the ministry of agriculture and farmers. However, only 100 million euros, i.e. 5.8% of the money attracted are to be found in completed investments.

Ciprian Nita, owner of mushroom and forest fruit processor TransDam in Bacau is one of the farmers to whom the European Union guaranteed financing for a 2.5 million-euro project, but who is unable to implement it because banks refuse to co-finance it. "I submitted the application documents in June 2008 and it was also then that I started talks with banks to see if such a project was bankable. They reassured me I would get the money, I even passed checks by the Agency of Payments for Rural Development and Fisheries (APDRP - which manages the European funds), and signed the contract in December. I was going to take the money from the bank, start the project, and then get some of the money back from the EU, but since the crisis came, the bank did not want to give me financing any more," Ciprian Nita told ZF.