`Some 36 tons of rice were imported illegally into Bulgaria last year`, Dimiter Yonchev, Chairman of the Union of Rice Growers in Bulgaria, announced. `Besides that the customs duties of 160 dollars/ton are very low`, he added. According to the Union, customs duties should stand at 300 to 350 dollars/ton because otherwise it will be impossible to sell Bulgarian-grown rice. `10 000 ha of the rice fields in Bulgaria have been abandoned`, Ivan Grozdanov, president of Shegor, one of the biggest rice companies, announced. Under an agreement with the EU, by 2006 Bulgaria must sow 10 000 ha with rice. `In order to meet this requirement, strict control should be introduced on the imposition of customs duties and on trade`, Yonchev said. If fulfilling the requirements of the agreement, Bulgaria will receive an annual subsidy from the EU. The imposition of an extra 15% customs duty on imports from early September till late December will protect Bulgarian farmers. In Yonchev`s view, a network for crediting rice growers should be set up. While countries like Italy, Turkey and the US rice growers do not pay for the water used for irrigation, in Bulgaria its price is 270 BGN/ha. In Turkey the import of rice in the September-November period is banned. Subsidies for rice growers reach 600 DEM/ha in Italy, and 700 DEM/ha in the US. In Egypt rice grower get 60 dollars per ton of exported rice, while in Bulgaria only half the costs on the purchase of seeds are covered by the state.

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