A Frog’s Leap into European Business

Invest 5,000 euros in a frog farm, and that will turn into the source of your wealth. But if you ask the SAPARD [European Union funding program for the agriculture] to fund your enterprise, only half of that money will be coming from you.

Pig and cow farms are out, and in come the ostrich, guinea hen, snail, and leech farms. So are the farms for harvesting frog legs for the food feasts in Western Europe. The price is good: six euros per kilo of frog legs.

If you already consider expanding your income with setting up a frog farm, maybe it is worth knowing that half of the money you need may come as a grant from the SAPARD financing program, via its Measure 3.4, called "Developing and diversifying the economic activities that generate multiple activities and alternative income," under the "Other activities" bracket.
Under this program’s provisions on could plan for a 5,000 to 200,000 euros investment, with half of the money coming from SAPARD. The total amount of funds allotted under the "Other activities" bracket of this program stays at 23 million euros. This may be enough to build farms harvesting 10 tons of frog legs per year, say officials in the Ministry of Agriculture.

The SAPARD money could help you built the warehouse for storing the food, the administrative office or fence the farm. The money could also go to buy transportation equipment, harvesting equipment or for monitoring the production process.
The farm may be developed either under the open sky, or indoors, in a controlled environment.

If you go for the first option, then you need a wet-land to fence around and to monitor the place to make sure your prospective merchandise does not make a leap for freedom.
A controlled environment farm would be a little bit harder to build: one needs to sustain a mild temperature (between 20 to 26 Celsius degrees), basins with slightly acid water and a habitat as close as possible to the natural one. You also need to provide insects for feeding the frogs.

The frogs’ legs are liked by connoisseurs because of their pleasant taste, similar to the one of chicken meat or crawfish. But they are also good on the menu because of the rich protein content (23%), which is close to the one provided by pork meat, but at a low fat content (0.9%).
Not only meat from their legs, but also skin from the frogs’ body is used for making various items like wallets or key-holders. While oil coming from certain frog body parts is used by the pharmaceutical industry.

If you want to ask for a SAPARD grant you have to go through several steps:
First, ask at the SAPARD Agency or its Regional Offices for the "Guide for Measure 3.4", or go on the Internet at www.sapard.ro to download the application form.
You then fill in the form electronically and make it into print and floppy-disk copies (three of them you have to forward to the Agency).
Each copy of the application form should go into a separate file accompanied by the copies of the feasibility study, the passes from the environment, veterinary and urbanism authorities, as well as a resume of the your professional life.

Each such file should go into a separate envelope on which you write down the reference number of the grant request, your and your company’s name and address, and the name of the project.
The application for the grant must be brought in person to the Regional Offices of the SAPARD Agency.

People authorized to conduct a professional activity, family business associations, agricultural associations and commercial companies may apply for getting the grants to set up such frog farms.
They all have, however, to prove are able to pay their financial obligations regularly and reach a minimum net profit of 5%.
An applicant may receive financial aid twice from this program: first for setting up the farm and then for developing it. The grant for further developing the farm would go to those farmers who already own the specific technology for harvesting the frog legs and have 30% of their production under contract to beneficiaries.