Croatia's Ministry of Agriculture reported on Friday that it publicized a 300 million kuna (€40 million) draft program for subsidies for farming businesses, intended to compensate their losses caused by surging energy prices.

The ministry reported that in the first seven months of this year, almost 92 percent of all workers in the domestic industrial sector were employed in the processing industry, of whom the largest share or almost 16 percent were employed in food production.

The program aims to provide support to entities operating in the agricultural products processing sector in order to alleviate the extreme price increases of natural gas and electricity which account for a large share of their operating expenses, the ministry said in an unsigned statement.

Due to the enormous price increase of energy products, those entities lack sufficient liquidity and are generating losses and the subsidies are intended to help them compensate for the losses.

Eligible applicants include companies of all sizes whose business involved “processing of agricultural products of animal and/or non-animal origin.”

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)