The picture is not good at all. This was said in the program "Face to Face" on BTV by the member of the Commission for Protection of Competition Zhelyo Boychev in connection with a recently prepared report by the CPC.
In the "Agriculture" sector, the conclusions are that it is increasingly fragmented. There are mainly small farms that are not on a competitive basis with their colleagues in Europe due to lower subsidies. This leads to increasing imports, which in turn results in an increase in prices, said Boychev.
We compared 10 products that are used daily – among them milk, meat, bread, flour sunflower oil, eggs. We wanted to see the entire supply chain of these products in order to draw our conclusions and look for solutions. In the dairy sector, for example, we saw a 25% decline over the last 5 years. This leads to a decline in the production of packaged milk, cheese, yellow cheese. In the same period, we have a 43% increase in the import of dairy products. During this period, Bulgarians have not lost their consumer habits towards these products, we mostly have growth. So, with regard to the dairy sector, Bulgarians eat mainly imported foods, he pointed out.
Bad trends are being noticed in the control of food quality. There is no one to monitor this. At the end of the report, we make a recommendation to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food to review food control. The correct ones suffer - they comply with the standards, which leads to price increases and the market throws them out. We must support Bulgarian producers. We want there to be bonuses for quality characteristics of the products. If we do not take measures, Bulgaria will soon lose traditional sectors and traditional foods, commented Zhelyo Boychev.
In response to a question, he announced that the CPC report had established a 91% markup in the prices of yellow cheese, 82% in the prices of cow's cheese and 73% in the prices of fresh milk.