The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) has published the regulatory bases for aid for the processing industry in the fisheries and aquaculture sector, framed in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). It is expected that before the end of the summer the call for applications for aid for the year 2024 will be published.

The Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, financed by the European Union within the framework of the NextGenerationEU instrument, includes 10 lever policies and 31 components. This plan includes a coherent set of investments and reforms aimed at recovery and the promotion of a change in the economic, productive and social model, to address in a balanced way the future challenges towards a more sustainable, digitalised, equal and more socially cohesive Spain.

For the execution of the Recovery Plan, a figure of public-private collaboration is included: the Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE). This figure includes tractor projects with a structural transformative impact on strategic sectors or with disruptive and ambitious research and innovation phases, beyond the state of the art in the sector.

The line of aid for the fisheries and aquaculture processing sector will make financing available for projects that involve an investment of more than 1.5 million euros and that are executed before June 30, 2026. The aid may cover up to 50% of the investments, with a maximum amount of five million euros.

The beneficiaries of this aid are individual commercial companies with their own legal personality, with industrial processing activity (fishing and aquaculture anywhere in the national territory), processing and conservation activities of fish, crustaceans and molluscs framed in section C – Division 10.2 of the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE 2009), approved by Royal Decree 475/2007, of 13 April.

These grants pursue the following objectives:

1. Energy efficiency. Increase energy efficiency or reduce the impact on the environment, including waste treatment.
2. Circular economy. Transform commercial fish catches that are not intended for human consumption.
3. Efficient use of water. Increase efficiency in the use of water resources.
4. Improvements in packaging. Develop new or better products, processes, or management and organizational systems.
5. Traceability systems. Improve the processing of by-products obtained from the main processing activities.
6. Safety, hygiene, health and working conditions. Improve safety, hygiene, health and working conditions.

The investments that can be executed include:

• Apparatus and equipment directly or indirectly linked to the production process (external transport elements are not subsidised).
• Building and facilities: material investments for the adaptation of existing industrial warehouses, as well as their facilities. These items can include the photovoltaic installation for self-consumption.
• Engineering fees, consulting, auditing, certificates… (the cost of the aid process cannot be included, but the auditor’s certificate for payment periods, DNSH, etc. can be included).

Investments must have an incentive effect and cannot be initiated.

Our team of experts, with more than 25 years of experience, is prepared to carefully analyse and manage the grants and subsidies that best suit your needs.

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