ESIF - EAFRD Greece Guarantee Facility

This Guarantee Facility offers investment loans and working capital loans that are being part of the investment project.

The financing concerns the coverage of expenses indicatively for:

• Costs for the purchase or lease of tangible and intangible assets
• General costs linked to the eligible investment such as architect, engineer and consultation fees, fees relating to advice on environmental and economic sustainability, including feasibility studies, according to art. 45.2(c) of the EAFRD Regulation
• Acquisition of new and second-hand equipment, machinery and appliances, provided that such acquisition is substantiated in the relevant business plan in terms of value, age and purpose of use
• VAT paid by the final recipient on eligible costs
• Living animals
• Purchase of land up to 10% of the total eligible expenditure of the investment
• New establishments of meat (other than poultry), slaughterhouses, provided that they are located in island regions (as defined by relevant national legislation/regulation) and have a processing capacity of up to 400 tonnes of meat
• Investments in energy production, as long as their capacity does not exceed the needs of the holding or the Final Recipient, as reflected in the energy needs study included in the investment plan

Investment loans can also be used for funding the investment plans that fall under either Sub-measure 4.1 “Support for investments in Agricultural Holdings” or Sub-measure 4.2 “Support for investments in processing/marketing and or development of Agricultural Products”.

Open to clients who have been affected by the pandemic the possibility of working capital Covid-19. The Final Recipient should demonstrate that a reduction of the expected/incurred revenues of the Final Recipient for 2020 and 2021, has taken place compared to 2019. For the Final Recipient Transactions which fall under Action 4.2.4, the Final Recipient undertaking activities supported under Action 4.2.4 shall be eligible provided that: (a) such activities account for more than 50% of its total revenues for the year 2019, or (b) such Final Recipient demonstrates that the purpose of the COVID-19 Working Capital Loan is to finance liquidity needs related to an activity eligible under Action 4.2.4.

Ineligible costs include but are not limited to:

• Support concerning the sale by farmers of non-agricultural products (**) to any customers on a retail basis
• Support concerning the processing (neither as input, nor as output) of products other than Agricultural Products(**)
• Support concerning genetically modified products
• Fines, financial penalties, legal and litigation costs, exemptions from charges
• Tariffs
• Projects carried out by aquaculturists or fishermen as well as projects concerning fishery or aquaculture products covered by the Fishery and Aquaculture Regulation
• Establishment of new olive oil mills
• Activities constituting pure financial transactions
• Real estate development activities when undertaken as a financial investment activity
• The restructuring or refinance of existing debt
• Financing of the research, development or technical applications relating to Genetically Modified Organisms
• Financing of the production of and trade in tobacco

Availability period is until 31.12.2025, or earlier if the budget is being absorbed.

This financial transaction benefits from the guarantee granted under the ESIF EAFRD Greece Fund of Funds, which is financed by funds provided by the Hellenic Republic, the European Union under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). The objective of the ESIF EAFRD Greece Fund of Funds is to support final recipients acting in the agricultural sector in obtaining access to finance that is necessary for the development of their businesses, on preferential terms. Moreover, the purpose of the ESIF EAFRD Greece Fund of Funds is to contribute to the economic development of Greece, through the creation of new jobs in the agricultural sector and the development of the Greek rural areas. 

ESIF EAFRD Greece is co-financed by the Hellenic Republic, the European Union under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). Europe invests in rural areas.

(**) “Agricultural Products” means products listed in Annex I to the Treaty, with the exception of fishery and aquaculture products covered by Regulation (EU) No 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on the common organisation of the markets in fishery and aquaculture products, amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1184/2006 and (EC) No 1224/2009 and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 104/2000 (OJ L 354, 28.12.2013, p. 1–21) the Fishery and Aquaculture Regulation.

The following enterprises are eligible:

• Professional Farmers, Young Farmers, Collective Farmer Associations, Agricultural Cooperative, producer Groups, Entities qualifying as KINSEP

• SMEs that are established and operating in Greece, and are being active in processing / marketing and/or development of Agricultural Products in specific sectors (*)

and meet, among others, the following eligibility criteria:

• It is not subject to collective insolvency proceedings (or any equivalent concept) nor fulfils the criteria under its domestic law for being placed in collective insolvency proceedings at the request of its creditors
• It shall not have a substantial focus on one or more Restricted Sectors
• It shall not be in an Exclusion Situation

(*)


1.Meat (including, but not limited to, cattle, poultry, pigs, sheep and goats slaughterhouses, meat and production of meat products, sausage units, animal by-products processing plants)

2. Milk (including, but not limited to, milk processing and the production of dairy products like cheese, yoghurt)

3. Eggs (including, but not limited to, egg packing)

4. Sericulture, apiculture, heliciculture

5. Feed (including, but not limited to, the production of animal feed mixtures for the rearing of domestic animals, as well as animals used for the production of fur)

6. Cereals (including, but not limited to, flour production, cereal drying)

7. Oil products (excluding the establishment of new olive oil mills)

8. Wine

9. Fruits and vegetables

10. Flowers (including, but not limited to, flower packing and marketing)

11. Pharmaceutical and aromatic plants

12. Seeds and propagating material

13. Vinegar (including, but not limited to, production of vinegar from wine, fruit and other agricultural raw materials)

Once the application process has been completed at www.ependyseis.gr/mis, you may visit a Piraeus Bank branch, bringing along the printed application form.

ESIF EAFRD Greece is co-financed by the Hellenic Republic, the European Union under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). Europe invests in rural areas.