{"id":15843,"date":"2026-05-13T14:55:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T14:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/aid-for-organic-beekeeping-livestock-farming-scrapped-over-fraudulent-applications\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T14:55:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T14:55:51","slug":"aid-for-organic-beekeeping-livestock-farming-scrapped-over-fraudulent-applications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/aid-for-organic-beekeeping-livestock-farming-scrapped-over-fraudulent-applications\/","title":{"rendered":"Aid for organic beekeeping, livestock farming scrapped over fraudulent applications"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p>The Rural Development and Food Ministry announced Wednesday it was scrapping all aid programs for organic beekeeping and livestock farming, amid a rash of bogus applications by farmers to receive EU subsidies.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement by Minister Margaritis Schinas put an end to speculation that they could restart after they were suspended in October 2025, when audits revealed the extent of the scandal. The program, budgeted at \u20ac134 million, would allocate \u20ac19 million to organic beekeeping and \u20ac115 million to organic livestock farming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are obliged to cancel the problematic actions,\u201d Minister Margaritis Schinas said at a press conference, adding that \u201cthere will be no future funding until we establish the appropriate framework. We need a fresh start.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The decision does not include organic agriculture. He added that the funds from the canceled programs \u201cwill be redirected to other priorities, which we will announce soon.\u201d He also noted that \u201cwe are in full coordination with Brussels, and they are fully informed about the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Secretary General of Rural Development and Food, Spyros Protopsaltis, explained the extent of the problem, saying the inspections carried out \u201chighlighted problems that we cannot ignore.There were cases where 300 hives were declared and during the inspection only three were found, while in other cases we found nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to ministry data, the number of organic producers increased by 250% in the period 2020-2024, reaching 119,000 in 2024, from approximately 34,000 producers in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, the demand for inclusion in organic farming programs exceeded the available resources. In agriculture, applications submitted amounted to \u20ac398 million, against an available budget of \u20ac172 million, or 231% of the available resources. In beekeeping, applications amounted to \u20ac166 million, against a budget of \u20ac19 million, or 874%, and in livestock farming, applications would require a total of \u20ac136 million, against a budget of \u20ac115 million.<\/p>\n<p>Schinas explained that the Task Force is preparing proposals for a new and more reliable framework for the organic sector. The plan is expected to include a new system of inspections and sanctions, digital tools, training initiatives, and the promotion of reforms.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n        var NXFBPixelFunc = function () {\n            document.removeEventListener(\"scroll\", NXFBPixelFunc);\n            setTimeout(function () {\n                !function (f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\n                    if (f.fbq) return;\n                    n = f.fbq = function () {\n                        n.callMethod ?\n                            n.callMethod.apply(n, arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments)\n                    };\n                    if (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\n                    n.push = n;\n                    n.loaded = !0;\n                    n.version = '2.0';\n                    n.queue = [];\n                    t = b.createElement(e);\n                    t.async = !0;\n                    t.src = v;\n                    s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n                    s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s)\n                }(window, document, 'script',\n                    'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n                fbq('init', '109138906120213');\n                fbq('track', 'PageView');\n            }, 0)\n        };\n        document.addEventListener(\"scroll\", NXFBPixelFunc);\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/economy\/1303662\/aid-for-organic-beekeeping-livestock-farming-scrapped-after-slew-of-fraudulent-applications\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Rural Development and Food Ministry announced Wednesday it was scrapping all aid programs for organic beekeeping and livestock farming, amid a rash of bogus applications by farmers to receive EU subsidies. The announcement by Minister Margaritis Schinas put an end to speculation that they could restart after they were suspended in October 2025, when &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Aid for organic beekeeping, livestock farming scrapped over fraudulent applications\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/aid-for-organic-beekeeping-livestock-farming-scrapped-over-fraudulent-applications\/#more-15843\" aria-label=\"Read more about Aid for organic beekeeping, livestock farming scrapped over fraudulent applications\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/beekeeping_bees_intime-960x600.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}