(Focus) -  Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Vasil Grudev attended a meeting with agricultural producers after taking part in the celebrations themed “Grape Harvesting – South Sakar” in the town of Harmanli, district of Haskovo, the press centre of the ministry announced on Sunday.

“The additional document submission under Measure 121 of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2007-2013 and handing out second tranche fuel vouchers are to start as of tomorrow [Monday],” said Vasil Grudev, speaking at the meeting.

Grudev recalled the additional document submission would continue until September 12 and it would concern only agricultural equipment.

The budget amounts to EUR 50 million.

The realisation of projects has to be completed by November 20.

Deputy Minister Grudev called on farmers to be active when submitting projects.

As regards fuel vouchers, the official commented they were to be received by September 25 at the agriculture municipal services.

Speaking at the meeting with farmers, Grudev announced further a very good wine grape harvest of over 250,000 tonnes was expected this year.

Over 175 million litres of wine are expected to be produced.

The Deputy Minister recalled EUR 133 million had been envisaged under the vine and wine programme and the resources under it would be fully absorbed.

Vasil Grudev also commented priority would be given to the sectors of fruit and vegetables, stock-breeding, and bio agriculture in this programme period.

This is also seen in the results of the document submission under Sub-measure 4.1 of the new programme, which has now ended.

The projects that will be considered are namely in the above-mentioned sectors.

Grudev specified as of this year 15% of direct payment resources would be used for tied aid to priority sectors.

For instance, area payments for fruit and vegetables stood at BGN 30 to BGN 45 per decare last year, while they are expected to become nearly BGN 200 per decare in 2015.