site.btaAgriculture Minister: There Is No Food Crisis

Caretaker Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev was adamant that in Bulgaria there are no indications of a foods crisis. “We are producing much more than we consume, in particular cereals, and today’s products ate steady. There are no disruptions to supply chains, but prices have increased,” Gechev told journalists in the southern town of Assenovgrad

He hailed the zero VAT rate on bread because bread is among staple Bulgarian foods and said that this rate should remain. "Bread price did not go down drastically but it didn’t go up either.”

He said that any changes to tax rates are justified when the effects are very serious. 

With the escalation of the war in Ukraine, market prices cannot be predicted, added Gechev. Gechev admitted that the market dynamics is strange, but wheat and sunflower are not expected to appreciate by much.

It is is another question with processed products, said the Minister. There is plenty of sunflower but trade has slowed down and the old and the new crops are overlapping. Half of sunflower imports to Europe are in Bulgaria but demand has slowed and the minister voiced expectations that this will change by the end of the year.

He said that prices depend on many factors and that fertilizers and fuels are the two components that have appreciated several-fold. In addition cereal and oil bearing crops did not receive any assistance this year unlike other sectors and this puts the whole sector in a difficult situation, added Gechev.

Of cooking oil price Gechev voiced expectation that this will be the peak and hoped that it would go down when the new crop begins to be processed given the quantities in stock. He said that the Agriculture Ministry does not have instruments to influence the market. 

Of the growing prices of milk and milk products the Agriculture Ministry said that this is a problem in all of Europe too but that prices cannot compensate for the losses of agricultural producers and the balance is delicate between keeping prices reasonable and on the other hand to keep agricultural producers from bankruptcy, he said.

Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev opened a new administrative office of the municipal agricultural service in Assenovgrad, and met with agricultural producers.