Several seedling producers are under criminal investigation for creating a fraudulent scheme of growing and selling low-quality currant seedlings, IPN reports.

According to prosecutors, these companies convinced local farmers between 2013 and 2014 to buy and plant currant seedlings, assuring them that these investments would be subsidized by the government. Moreover, officials from the National Agency for Food Safety issued for them certificates containing false data about the phytosanitary state of the seedlings.

After the plantations withered, the farmers asked for subsidies from the Agency for Interventions and Payments in Agriculture (AIPA). A control by AIPA and the prosecutors revealed that the supposedly multi-annual cultures withered within 6 months after being planted, despite proper care by the farmers, because of the poor quality of the cultivars.

The Prosecutor General's office initiated 5 criminal cases against seedling producers for swindling, abuse of power and the manufacturing, ownership or use of forged official documents. The investigation will continue.