Foods, offered on the market, have over 90% markup. This was established by a National Coordinating Unit with the aim to monitor and control food prices.

The Commission for Consumer Protection found 452 violations in 471 inspections of food pricing in the commercial network. This was announced by the acting Deputy Prime Minister Hristo Alexiev, who, together with the Ministers of Agriculture and Economy and Industry, presented the results of an analysis of the development of the prices of basic food products.

200 of the detected violations are commercial practices, stated the chairman of the Commission for Consumer Protection Stoil Alipiev.

Among the most common unfair commercial practices are:

• False announcements such as "today only at this price" or "lowest price"
• Discrepancy between the product label price and the checkout price
• A missing item advertised at a low price in a brochure that attracted consumers to a particular chain
• Discrepancies in the weight of products
• False information on the label that a given product is Bulgarian production

Within the framework of the joint inspections of the responsible institutions, the Food Safety Agency has carried out 333 inspections and found 32 violations. The NRA participated in 340 inspections, on which 71 acts of violations were issued.

By decision of Prime Minister Galab Donev, a National Coordination Unit was formed yesterday to monitor and control food prices. Within the unit, a methodology for monitoring and controlling the formation of food prices from the producer to the stand has been developed. Several countries are also identified with which to compare food prices.

The results of the analysis so far are worrying, commented Deputy Prime Minister Hristo Alexiev.

"There are a number of unfair trade practices. Doubts arise about too high profits to the detriment of the rights of the population. I want to be clear that we do not declare war on trade chains, we do not want to wage war, but as a country we are obliged to protect the interest of consumers and people and to make sure that income is not taken away from the most vulnerable groups. Nor do we intend to interfere in the food market! If anyone portrays it as such, I can say that it is not true ", pointed out Alexiev.

Pricing checks will continue, with the goal of turning them into permanent monitoring, Alexiev added.

"At the moment, the inflation curve is going down and this is clearly visible. The food curve is going up. This makes us take all these measures," he added.

Changes in the legislation directed against overvaluation are also being prepared.

"At the moment, this is legal. We found out in this one month of inspections a number of things that you see. This is a small part of them - there is a lack of legislation, there is not enough transparency, and in Bulgaria pricing very often diverges from Western models", the minister of agriculture pointed out.

In the coming weeks, a website will be operational, which will show the price margin of the products from the manufacturer to the sales stand.

The three ministers will also present information on the actions currently taken by the institutions on the subject.

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