“In Crete, 93,000 hectares stated for organic farming and the next district was 16,000 hectares”
A clear message that cross -checks will proceed through the full range of biological programs, as well as those who received a subsidy from the OPECEPEsent by the Minister of Rural Development and Food, Costas Tsiaras, In an interview with ERA1 and Thanos Siafakas.
As he announced, “the checks are completed to the big recipients and other categories will gradually follow. Already, controls by the Audit Team, with the participation of the Financial Police, the AADE and ministry officials, with the aim of having a very soon clear results. “
Concerning organic programs, he stressed that from the first samples of the intersections about 50% of the controlled do not qualify for the biological program.
Referring to the exaggerations and failures found, Mr Tsiaras spoke of numbers outside reality. For example, as he said, Crete was reported 93,000 hectares for organic farming and the next district was 16,000 hectares.
He also noted that there was a huge number of hives for organic beekeeping, to the extent that, as he typically stated, “one could not accept that all the hives in Greece could operate through the program”.
In this light, Mr Tsiaras decided to freeze the payments, and, as he explained, multiple cross checks will be preceded.
Elsewhere, he stressed that there is a significant departure from organic programs, as beekeepers, breeders and growers withdraw the application for the file they had submitted.
At the same time, he complained to mass avoidance of controls, noting: “While an appointment has been made the next day, the controlled disappear and many of them do not answer the phones.”
At the same time, the Minister of Rural Development and Food said that certification bodies are now targeting. As he said, “we will consider, if the certificates, who actually attest to organic farming, organic beekeeping, biological livestock farming, worked on the basis of the procedure.” He also made it clear that this check has been decided to be universal throughout the spectrum.
About OPECEPE’s case, Mr. Tsiaras commented that the phenomenon has timeless features. “Anyone who believes that all these issues are limited to two periods of time, which have been controlled by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, is obviously self -sufficient. We all need to understand that it is a long -awaited issue, a timeless pathogenesis, ”he added.