The National Grain-growers Association (NGA) starts protest rallies against what it describes as uncontrolled import of sunflower seeds and other farm produce from Ukraine, as soon as the expected caretaker government takes office, NGA Chairman Kostadin Kostadinov told reporters on Tuesday. Kostadinov said NGA's Governing Board made a decision to start the protests during an agricultural forum in the village of Prouchik Geshanovo, near the northeastern town of Dobrich.
Kostadinov said roads along which imported Ukrainian agricultural produce is carried are going to be blocked with farm machinery, including border checkpoints in Kardam, Silistra and Rousse (on the Danube), as well as other roads. Kostadinov said that the outgoing government is turning a deaf ear to the problems of agriculture. "They are all thinking about the elections and we will set out our demands in a statement to the expected caretaker government," he said.
He also said that farmers call on the state to abide by the laws and rules related to customs and phytosanitary control. In Kostadinov's words, since mid-June to date, 280,000 t of Ukrainian sunflower seeds have been imported in Bulgaria and went directly to processing plants where the ready product is presented as Bulgarian, "without thinking about the health of the consumers".
Kostadinov argued that the uncontrolled import will hurt both small and medium-sized farm producers who do not have storage space to keep the harvested quantities so that traders will buy the sunflower seeds at low prices. Kostadinov warned that the new farming year will come with five-fold more expensive fertilizers and higher rent prices of land.
/ZD/
news.modal.text
Nothing available