Gaining the trust of consumers is one of the most important tasks facing the sector. And it is earned with an extremely honest attitude towards the products that reach the table of these consumers. This was stated by the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Kiril Vatev, at the opening of the National Assembly for the Protection of Local Bulgarian Agricultural Breeds of Animals in the “Panicets” area above Kalofer.
SEE MORE: Minister caught the shops in stride! 70% markup
The minister emphasized that it is very important to increase the productivity of Bulgarian breeds of animals, because the competition is huge outside, the market is open and Bulgaria cannot stop imports from any EU member country.
The path from the field and the farm to the consumer’s table must be very well organized through cooperatives and regulations, which is a common task, Minister Vatev also said. He reported that checks by the control authorities along the chain from the stand to the farm show evidence of inflated markups in the final market, which does not apply only to dairy products. That is exactly why the Council of Ministers is developing a new law on trade in agricultural goods to regulate the process:
“There is a need for such a law to put some kind of framework on these markups. The strongest cannot push down the weaker, because the weakest in this case is the farmer, who has no one to push the price”.
On the occasion of the ended protests and the agreement reached, the minister explained that after the expiration of the two months for which it was agreed to stop imports from Ukraine, as much sunflower as necessary will enter Bulgaria. He recalled that the Bulgarian sunflower harvest is currently lower than expected – 1.6 million tons, and a total of 4 million tons of sunflowers are needed for the processing sector.
“Here, trade negotiations between producers and processors are of leading importance. There is no such administrative body or control body that can go and tell them what prices to make the deal. They have to understand themselves.”
The national assembly over Kalofer is under the title “Let’s preserve the Bulgarian together” and the participants again called for the introduction of a “Bulgarian product” label on food products.
