site.btaGovernment Ends Contract of Private Operator for Phytosanitary Control at Border with Turkey, Vows to Resolve Ensuing Problems within Days

The government has terminated the contract of a private company which provided phytosanitary control services at the Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint on the border with Turkey, and is determined to address the ensuing long waiting times for trucks within days. This transpired Monday as Bulgarian Deputy Agriculture Minister Ivan Hristanov visited the checkpoint together with Turkish Ambassador to Bulgaria Aylin Sekizkok, and the two met truck drivers. 

Hristanov said that phytosanitary control at the checkpoint has been provided by a sole operator for ten years now, and this monopoly is about to end as the contract with Eurolab 2011 was terminated. 

The company checked all trucks carrying produce from Turkey, doing laboratory tests to establish traces of pesticides. It charged the equivalent of EUR 210 for such a test plus another EUR 244 for loading and unloading the trucks for the check, reported bTV. The Kapitan Andreevo ckeckpoint handles hundreds of trucks with produce.

A state-owned laboratory will be put in charge of phytosanitary control at Kapitan Andreevo and a procedure has started for procurement of testing equipment. The wait for truck drivers will be shortened and they will have the option of collecting their test results in the country's interior rather than wait at the border crossing. For that purpose, buffer parking lots are being built near Sofia where the trucks can park to collect the test results. Also, the rates for the tests will likely be reduced as more companies start to offer them. 

Due to the change of operator, some 519 refrigerator trucks are waiting in Turkey to cross into Bulgaria and it will take two days to handle them all, said Hristanov. The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency has sent additional personnel to speed up the process.

Ambassador Sekizkok said that the Turkish side had made some proposals and they were accepted by the Bulgarian officials. She said there was no tension among the carriers.

Vassil Dimitrov, the owner of Eurolab 2011, who has just lost his business at the border, told reporters that an illegal expropriation is underway and that pretrial proceedings have been opened.