State Aid for Losses from the March–April 2025 Frosts (cherries, sour cherries, apples, quinces, figs)

Joint ministerial decision 252456/02-10-2026 assigns to ELGA (the Hellenic Agricultural Insurance Organisation) an ad hoc state-aid programme of up to EUR 50,000,000 in total for growers whose 2025 production fell as a direct result of the frosts of 17 March – 18 April 2025. The crops were then at a (pre-flowering) stage that ELGA insurance does not cover.

It covers only: cherries in the regional units of Argolida, Arkadia, Achaia, Grevena, Drama, Evros, Imathia, Thessaloniki, Kavala, Karditsa, Kastoria, Kilkis, Kozani, Korinthia, Larisa, Magnesia, Messinia, Xanthi, Pella, Pieria (Agios Dimitrios local community), Rodopi, Serres, Trikala, Florina and Chalkidiki; sour cherries in Argolida, Arkadia, Grevena, Korinthia, Larisa, Messinia, Pella, Rodopi, Serres and Trikala; apples in Achaia, Grevena, Drama, Evros, Thessaloniki, Kavala, Karditsa, Kastoria, Kozani, Korinthia, Xanthi, Pella (Vegoritida area), Rodopi, Serres and Florina; quinces in Evros, Imathia, Kavala, Karditsa, Kilkis, Larisa, Xanthi, Pella, Rodopi and Trikala; fresh figs in Attica.

Only small and medium-sized primary crop producers that filed a final aid application with ELGA during 2025 qualify. The production loss must exceed 30% both at regional-unit level and at producer level. The damaged production must be insured with ELGA and declared in the 2025 Single Crop/Livestock Declaration, and the 2025 special insurance contribution must have been paid. Natural persons must also have agricultural income and must have been the lawful holders of the farm when the damage occurred.

The aid is calculated on the actual loss: 20% is deducted from the loss percentage and the rest is multiplied by 50% of the value of the lost production. The maximum is EUR 200,000 per beneficiary and amounts below EUR 15 are not paid. The aid may not exceed the fall in 2025 farm sales compared with the higher of 2023 and 2024; this cap does not apply to young farmers or to businesses that started after 2022. AADE (the tax authority) runs the final check of the amounts.

The decision applies from 2/10/2026 (Government Gazette B 5915). ELGA retrieves the E1 tax-return and farmer-register (ΜΑΑΕ) data itself. Legal entities will be asked for their documents by an announcement sent to the ELGA local correspondents. The aid is paid into the bank account given in the application or in the 2025 declaration, by 18/04/2029 at the latest.