site.btaUPDATED Vine Growers Protest Government's Disregard for Their Woes

Vine growers from across the country protested Monday at the Agriculture Ministry in central Sofia against the disregard of the State for the woes in the sector. The National Association of Bulgarian Vine Growers (NABVG), which is organizing the rally, said the country's wine sector has been going through one of its worst periods in recent years.

“Why are we always the last ones when subsidies are distributed and why are we paid many times less than what the neighbouring countries and the other agricultural sectors receive?” asked Atanas Vassilev, chairperson of NABVG.

NABVG says that Bulgarian viticulture is entitled to a subsidy of EUR 13.50 per acre per year, while in other member states subsidies reach EUR 200-300, which puts Bulgarian vine growers at a great disadvantage.

He said that an inadequate policy in the sector has caused the country to slip from the position of the world’s fourth biggest grapes exporter in the 1990s to an importer nowadays.

The protestors insist that a new vines register needs to be built because many vineyards have been destroyed and people have given up this business. There are fewer than 200,000 vine growers in Bulgaria, they said.

They also complained that the market this year is bad because grapes are imported “in large quantities from everywhere”. 

Vinegrowers are adamant that grape import should be somehow limited during the harvest time.

The protestors also demanded the replacement of Krassimir Koev, the executive director of the Vine and Wine Agency. 

Koev was reinstated to that position in October by caretaker Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev.

Vine growers say that the Vine and Wine Agency has done nothing good for the sector in the past 15 years.

It transpired from an Agriculture Ministry press release that Minister Yavor Gechev came out to meet the protesting vine growers. He told them that the development of a strategy for the vine and wine sector will be resumed and that standardized vineyard maps will be prepared.

He also reportedly told them that support for vine growers will reach BGN 2,062 per hectare this year, and for those who also receive agri-environment payments under the Rural Development Programme, the subsidy will be as much as BGN 3,602/ha.

Minister Gechev was with Deputy Ministers Todor Dzhikov, Krum Nedelkov, Georgi Sabev and Valentin Chambov when he met with the protestors.