Farmers accuse some retail chains of pressure to reduce prices by 15%. They claim that just a day after the meeting with the Prime Minister about the initiative “Basket with Care”, they started receiving messages to reduce delivery prices. According to them, in cases where producers do not agree to these conditions, they face the risk of having their supplies to the relevant retail outlets terminated.
“We received 2 signals from producers who shared that they are being pressured by some of the chains participating in the initiative “Basket with Care” to reduce delivery prices. This coincides with the statement made at the meeting with the Prime Minister that they will reduce the prices of some products by 15% at their own expense. The next day, employees of some of these chains call and say – if you reduce the price, we will buy your production, and if you do not reduce it – we will not buy it”, said Marin Genurov, chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Greenhouse Producers.
The Ministry of Agriculture has already contacted them for more information.
“Our production is perishable, we cannot keep it for more than 1-2 days. We are at a dead end and are selling”, says producer Ivan Kamburov. “After the chain reduces the price by 15%, this price will also fall on the exchanges and markets by another 15-20%. All this will affect real agricultural producers. From September onwards, most farmers will restructure their future, leave the sector and start working in other sectors,” says Kamburov.
He added that all costs for farmers have increased. “Fertilizers have increased in the last 2-3 months by about 100%, fuel, heating, labor. For outdoor production, my pumps use 8-9 liters of diesel per hour to water the fields. This is a big expense. Costs have increased on average by at least 50-60%. Greenhouse production this year is at a more or less normal price, but outdoor production is at an extremely low price. And demand is almost nonexistent. All farmers are worried. "A large part of them redirected their energy to other businesses," Kamburov said.
“We expect a reaction from the relevant ministries and control bodies based on the signal we are submitting," Genurov said.