Bulgaria Mulls Strategies for Boosting Supply of Domestic Agricultural Products in Retailers

Business | September 17, 2013, Tuesday // 19:11
Bulgaria: Bulgaria Mulls Strategies for Boosting Supply of Domestic Agricultural Products in Retailers Prof. Svetla Bachvarova, Chair of the parliamentary agriculture and food committee, photo by BGNES

Bulgaria is studying the experience and legal provisions of foreign countries in a bid to boost the supply of domestic production in major chains of stores, according to Prof. Svetla Bachvarova, Chair of the parliamentary agriculture and food committee.

"We are analyzing the experience and best practices in other countries in order to bring in more Bulgarian agricultural products in the big retailers and to reduce the pressure on local producers", Bachvarova declared Tuesday, as cited by the BGNES agency.

Bachvarova is in charge of the "agriculture and food" portfolio in the working group on anti-trust legislation in Bulgaria which is scheduled to hold its first sitting on Tuesday.

She argued that the group would examine all laws believed to create the preconditions for monopoly or cartel behavior and publish a report within 10 days.

"After our analysis, we will initiate legal amendments aimed at preventing the possibility of preliminary agreements", she added.

Bachvarova added that representatives of the retail chains had expressed desire to sign preliminary contracts with fruit-growers and livestock breeders back in January or February in order to assure the quantities they would have at their disposal throughout the year and that the commodities would be purchased at market prices.

Bachvarova vowed that all pending payments towards the agricultural producers would be settled by end-2013.

She explained that a total of BGN 120M would go to livestock breeders, while a total of BGN 200 M had been earmarked for underprivileged regions.

She also made clear that part of the EU subsidies were also expected to be paid in December, meeting demands of agricultural producers, who were reporting a bad year due to the collapse in purchasing prices.

Bachvarova noted that some BGN 700M would be set aside for fuel excise duty refunds under Budget 2014.

She informed that the Bulgarian Agricultural Land Ownership and Use Act was also expected to undergo changes in September, adding that the amendments aimed to facilitate access of livestock breeders to pastures located on state-owned and municipal land.

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Tags: svetla bachvarova, agricultural producers, retailers, livestock breeding

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