Stavros Kalafatis: “€39 million aid package for fur – Mammoth support for Western Macedonia”

He announced compensation, support programmes and a €150 million development package for Western Macedonia and the fur sector.

In a period of intense challenges for the fur sector and the economy of Western Macedonia, the government is proceeding with a wide range of interventions aimed at supporting businesses and employees, strengthening local production and stimulating employment. From Kastoria, in the context of the 51st International Fur Fair, Deputy Minister of Development Stavros Kalafatis presented a comprehensive package of funding and development tools, underlining that the government’s strategy is focused on sustainable development, reducing regional disparities and creating new prospects for local entrepreneurship.

“For more than half a century, the International Fur Fair, here in acritic Kastoria, has been highlighting the Greece of extroversion, the Greece that produces, that creates, that innovates. The support of the government and the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the fur sector is practical and lasting.

The programme

So far, 12 million euros have been allocated for the compensation of fur enterprises and 10 million euros for the support of workers. And through a third programme of the Ministry of Development – with the assistance of the Region of Western Macedonia – we are supporting the sector with another €17 million. At the same time, Western Macedonia is at the centre of a special scheme of the Development Law, with a budget of 150 million euros.

In this way and with all our strengths we are supporting entrepreneurship, creating new jobs, covering regional inequalities and making fair and sustainable development a reality everywhere and for everyone.”

The above was stressed by Deputy Minister of Development Stavros Kalafatis in a statement during his visit to the 51st International Fur Fair of Kastoria, where he attended as a representative of the government.

The Deputy Minister was welcomed and guided at the fair by the President of the Association of Furriers of Kastoria Apostolos Tsoukas.