A total of 136,146 dairy and beef farmers and citrus fruit growers have received the extraordinary and urgent aid provided by the Government to deal with the consequences of the war in Ukraine. A total of 356,758,710 euros have been paid out in the two lines of direct support to producers.

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Royal Decree-Law 6/2022 of 29 March, by which the Council of Ministers adopted a series of measures in response to the economic and social consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, introduced, among others, two lines of direct aid for the agricultural sector. One of the consequences of the war has been the increase in production costs for agricultural and livestock holdings as a result of higher energy, fertiliser and raw material costs, in particular cereal used for the production of animal feed. The livestock sector has therefore been the main recipient of aid.

Dairy sector
One of the lines is State aid for milk producers, which began to be paid on 30 May, and of which the ministry, through the Spanish Agricultural Guarantee Fund (FEGA), has paid a total of 166,700,877 euros to 19,705 farmers. The main amount corresponds to the cattle sector, 123,053,660 euros (73.8% of the total), with 806,924 animals. Sheep milk producers received 31,633,569 euros and goat milk producers received 12,013,648 euros.

Meat and citrus fruits
By agreement between the Ministry and the Autonomous Communities and the sectoral organisations, it was decided that the second line of direct aid would go to the suckler cow, fattening cattle, sheep and goat, poultry and rabbit sectors, as well as to citrus fruit producers, as these are considered to be the sectors that are experiencing the greatest difficulties.

This line has been financed 33.33% with European funds (EAGF) and 66.66% from the budgets of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (except in the case of the Basque Country, which has contributed 1.8 M€ from its budget) and has been paid to its beneficiaries through the Autonomous Communities. In total (adding European and national funds), 190,057,833 euros have been paid out to 116,458 producers (81,662 livestock farmers and 34,796 citrus growers).

More than half of this amount, 96,656,0626 million, corresponds to the suckler cow sector and benefits 46,910 farmers with a herd of almost 1.8 million head, distributed among the 17 autonomous communities. For fattening cattle, 12,190,465 euros are distributed among 6,976 farmers with a total of more than 1.1 million animals on their farms.

In the sheep and goat sector, the 23,923 livestock farmers receiving aid receive 31.2 million euros. The poultry sector receives ¤9.4 million for 3,171 beneficiaries, while 682 rabbit meat producers receive ¤2.5 million.

This package is completed with 37,981,577 euros for 34,796 citrus fruit producers with a total of 158,376 hectares of crops.