The European Commission has greenlighted 4 Polish food promotion programs. Their combined budget amounts to EUR 11.2 million, of which the EU will co-finance over EUR 8.5 million. Meat, fruit and vegetables will be promoted.
In total, the EC has accepted 58 so-called simple programs with a total budget of over 125 million Euro. The 4 Polish programs will thus receive 8.8 percent of the budget intended to support such programs. The EU will be co-financing at least 50 percent of the program costs.
Simple programs are campaigns carried out by a single organization.
The program for the promotion of apples with a protected geographical indication, submitted by the Sady Grójeckie Association, is one of the four that have been accepted. Its budget is 2.94 million Euro. The information and promotion campaign will be carried out on the German, Swedish and Danish markets.
Another one in the list is the program of the Association of Fruit and Vegetable Distributors, which aims to promote fruit in the United Arab Emirates. The cost of this was estimated at 1.84 million Euro.
As much as two-thirds of the available funds have been allocated to promote EU food products in non-EU countries; in particular, those where the Union could significantly increase its agro-food exports, such as Canada, Japan, China, Mexico and Colombia.
In the case of programs within the Union, the EC is putting particular emphasis on informing consumers about the various EU systems and quality labels, such as geographical indications and organic productions. It also plans to fund campaigns promoting healthy nutrition and the consumption of fruit and vegetables.
In 2018, the European Commission earmarked 169 million Euro for the co-financing of promotional programs for all EU countries, compared to 142 million Euro in 2017.