New contest for allocation of grants to cooperatives in Serbia opens

The cabinet of the minister without a portfolio in charge of regional development and coordination of operations of public enterprises has opened a contest for the realization of the Program of support to implementation of measures of even regional development through the state's participation in economic-financial incentives for soil-working and agricultural cooperatives in 2018, across the territory of Serbia, and especially in the Nisava, Toplica, Pirot, Jablanica and Pcinja administrative districts and in Kosovo and Metohija.

As Milan Krkobabic, the minister without a portfolio in charge of regional development and coordination of operations of public enterprises, told Beta, around RSD 825 million was set aside for the project “500 Cooperatives in 500 Villages” for 2018.

The terms of the contest specify that the maximum amount of a grant for a newly formed cooperative is RSD 7.5 million and that old cooperatives may get up to RSD 15 million and complex cooperatives up to RSD 60 million.

It is added that the program should contribute to the founding of cooperatives in areas where there are none or where cooperatives have been closed, upgrade the pool of raw materials in the production of milk, meat, fruit and vegetables, contribute to innovations and technical and technological equipping of cooperatives, stimulate cooperation between cooperatives, contribute to the growth of competitiveness etc.

The application deadline is August 15 for the newly formed and old cooperatives and September 15 for complex cooperatives.

Let us remind that, as announced earlier, the government's program for cooperatives for 2018 sets aside four times as much money as in 2017, when the project of reviving cooperatives in Serbia began. Over 240 new cooperatives have been founded in Serbia since mid-2017.

Ministarstvo bez portfelja Republike Srbije

cabinet of the minister without a portfolio in charge of regional development and coordination of operations of public enterprises

Program of support to implementation of measures of even regional development through the states participation in economic financial incentives for soilworking and agricultural cooperatives in 2018

financing cooperatives

allocation of grants to cooperatives

contest for allocation of grants to cooperatives

newly formed cooperatives

old cooperatives

complex cooperatives

joining of agricultural producers

Nisava District

Toplica District

Pirot District

Jablanica District

Pcinja District

cooperative

cooperatives

soilworking cooperatives

agricultural cooperatives

cooperation between cooperatives

cooperatives in Serbia