Restructuring and conversion of vineyards 2024-2025 campaign

The objective of the aid is to improve the overall performance and sustainability of the farm, in particular by reducing production costs or improving and converting production in the wine-growing sector.

The conversion and restructuring activities eligible for this aid are:

A. varietal conversion , which consists of:

in the replanting on the same or another plot of land, with or without changing the training system, of a different vine variety, deemed to be of greater oenological or commercial value.

B. restructuring which consists

B1. in the relocation of a vineyard with replanting in a position that is more favourable from an agronomic point of view, both in terms of exposure and for climatic, soil and economic reasons

B2. in the replanting of the vineyard in the same plot but with changes to the training system or the planting layout. In this case the increase in vines per hectare must be at least 20%.

IMPORTANT! In view of the need for those interested in the intervention to carry out the grubbing operations during the autumn of 2024 and the planting of the rooted vines as early as the first half of 2025, planning the timeframe for obtaining an economic return on the investment made, pending the procedure for notifying the European Commission of the aid, it was deemed necessary, for the year 2024, to open the call for applications and allow the collection of the relevant aid applications, making the granting of aid subject to the final decision approving the aid by the European Union. The conditions contained in the Decision of the GP no. 1579 dated 4 October 2024, could be modified by the final Decision of the Commission. In this case, a new measure will be adopted by the Provincial Council and every applicant who has applied for aid will be notified.

Resources allocated for the 2024/2025 marketing year: 1,200,000euro

For the interventions, no priority criteria are identified. Should the financial resources available for this call for applications not be sufficient to finance all the applications submitted, the contribution will be reduced proportionally in order to finance all the applications submitted.

For the quantification of the contribution, reference must be made to the types of intervention and vineyard reported in the Standard Tables of Unit Costs (TSCU) and elaborated for the CAP 2023 - 2027 programming by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests, in agreement with the Council for Research in Agriculture and Analysis of the Agricultural Economy (CREA) and the National Rural Network.

The contribution to the restructuring and conversion costs is granted to the extent of 50% of the eligible expenditure, also defined as a lump sum, as provided for by Article 46 paragraph 3 of LP n. 4/2003 on the basis of the aforementioned TSCUs, applied to the areas under vines actually measured in accordance with Article 42 of Regulation (EU) 2022/126, exclusively for the actions and expenses provided for in the call for proposals, as reported in paragraph "4. Definition of support" of Annex A of the Resolution of the Provincial Council n. 1579 of 4 October 2024.

The granting of the contribution entails the obligation for the beneficiary to respect the intended use of the vineyard planting for at least 10 years pursuant to Article 6 of Provincial Law 4/2003.

The term runs from the date of the application for final payment of the contribution.

Aid beneficiaries are small and medium-sized enterprises active in primary production in the wine sector. The following are eligible for aid

(a) individual agricultural enterprises, as identified by the State and provincial legislation in force;

(b) companies set up to run agricultural enterprises as identified in point (a);

(d) agricultural cooperatives and cooperatives for the collection, processing and marketing of agricultural products and their consortia listed in the Register of cooperatives of the Province of Trento, agricultural associations provided they are legally constituted

(e) associations of agricultural producers recognised under the relevant regulations in force;

which have submitted their expression of interest by 16 September 2024.

The following are excluded from aid under this measure

1. companies that are the subject of an outstanding recovery order following a previous Commission decision declaring an aid unlawful and incompatible with the internal market;

2. firms in difficulty, as defined in Chapter 2.4 paragraph 33 (63) of the Guidelines;

3. companies that have received a compulsory grubbing order for phytosanitary reasons pursuant to Article 55a of Lp 4/2003 and have not complied with the obligation

4. companies that use authorisations issued on the basis of the conversion of replanting rights purchased from other producers, as established by the European Commission note Ref (2016)7158486 of 23/12/2016 point 9 or for new plantings issued by the Ministry;

5. large enterprises, as defined in Chapter 2.4, paragraph 36 of the Guidelines.

The aspiring beneficiary may mandate a CAA that will make use of the IT procedures set up on SRTrento.

The application for support must be submitted through the SRTrento portal, digitally signed by the applicant and must contain

- the references to the expression of interest submitted according to the methods defined by the Rural Development Policy Service (under penalty of ineligibility of the application for support)

- the list of parcels and vineyard units subject to renewal of the planting and the relevant title of use

- the area covered by each operation

- the variety and age of the grubbed-up plants;

- the varieties renewed;

- the pre- and post-intervention planting distances;

- the deadline for carrying out the operations. This criterion constitutes the chronoprogram of the activities and must be made absolutely explicit in the application.

- a detailed description of the individual activities proposed with a summary of the costs of the operation (to be included in the telematic application in SRTRENTO) and the improvement in the overall performance and sustainability of the farm that is to be achieved, in particular through a reduction in production costs or the improvement and conversion of production.

The payment application must also be submitted via the SRTrento portal and digitally signed by the applicant. The following must be attached to it

- Annex A - final statement and description of the intervention carried out

- Annex B - expenditure calculation schedule

- photographic documentation of preparatory operations of the installation

- georeferenced photographic documentation representative of the vineyard area covered by the intervention (at least 4 photos for each body) (compulsory only in the event that the administration does not request a field visit to measure the area covered by the intervention)

- shapefile planimetry of the vineyard created (compulsory only in the event that the administration does not require an on-site visit to measure the area subject to intervention)

- documentary evidence of the health certification of the rooted cuttings purchased

- documentary evidence of soil analysis (compulsory only in the case where such expenditure has been indicated in the application for support in Annex B).

Application for support:

In addition it must be declared:

- that they have been authorised to carry out the work by the owner/owner/user of the land, in the case of plots not owned by the applicant;

- that he/she has neither applied for nor obtained, for the planned works, any other support except within the limits of the provisions in force;

- that it is not the subject of an outstanding recovery order following a previous Commission decision declaring the aid unlawful and incompatible with the internal market

- that it is not in difficulty within the meaning of Chapter 2.4 - Definitions - point 33 (63) of the Guidelines.

Application for payment:

• photographic documentation preparatory operations of the installation
• georeferenced photographic documentation representative of the area under vines that is the subject of the intervention (at least 4 photos for each body) (compulsory only if the administration does not require a field visit to measure the area under intervention)
• shapefile planimetry of the vineyard created (compulsory only in the event that the administration does not require an on-site visit to measure the area subject to intervention)
• documentary evidence of the health certification of the rooted cuttings purchased
• documentary evidence of soil analysis (compulsory only in the case where such expenditure has been indicated in the application for support in Annex B)
• declaration in lieu of affidavit by the legal representative on the applicability of the withholding tax referred to in art. 28, paragraph 2, of Presidential Decree 600/1973 (there is a dedicated section within the payment application on the portal https://srt.infotn.it).

In order to facilitate the submission of the payment application, a manual has been prepared to assist the beneficiary in completing the various sections of the on-line application published on the website https://srt.infotn.it/

Before the final settlement, the competent Structure will carry out sample checks on at least 20% of the farms benefiting from the grant, checking that the facilities have been built in accordance with the provisions of Provincial Council Resolution No. 1579 of 4 October 2024.

During the inspection, the congruity of the intervention carried out with respect to the application is verified. Plants which, at the time of the inspection, differ in their characteristics (variety, form of cultivation, sixth, etc.) from what was accepted in the balance application will not be eligible for aid.

The outcome of the on-the-spot check will be set out in an inspection report prepared by the competent structure.