Rosoman, 14 February 2022 (MIA) – Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said Monday the state cares for famers, more precisely for winegrowers, which has been producing visible results. He took part in a wine pruning ritual held annually to mark St. Trifun Day (February 14) in the Rosoman village of Trstenik, central North Macedonia. “Together with winegrowers and wineries we mark the start of their new year and we celebrate our Macedonian wine, which is well-received around the world,” Kovachevski said announcing the government will invest in winegrowing to make the local wine industry more competitive internationally. Despite the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, he added, the amount of grapes sold has doubled than that in 2019 and 2020. Also, 2021 recorded exports of wine in amount of EUR 49 million, Kovachevski said. He announced financial support for micro wineries, which includes grants up to EUR 10,000 for equipment and consulting business services. PM Kovachevski was joined by Agriculture Minister Ljupcho Nikolovski, who wished a successful and fruitful year for wineries. He announced that over EUR 9.4 million in subsidies have been paid to nearly 13,800 winegrowers to invest in modern equipment. Our intention is to stimulate winegrowers and wineries to modernize production. Under the new agriculture financial support program for 2022, which has been aligned with the European regulations, we introduced advanced payment of subsidies,” Minister Nikolovski said.