Two fruit and vegetable inspection laboratories will operate at the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing, and this is a good deal that was reached after serious efforts by the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency.
This was stated by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Kiril Vatev to producers and processors of fruits and vegetables today in Starosel. In connection with the concluded out-of-court agreement, he explained that according to an independent assessment, this is a more profitable option for the state, which will have a second food control laboratory.
„After a lot of hard work and legal correspondence, BABH has achieved what I consider to be a great success. For BGN 10 million, the existing laboratory of Kapitan Andreevo, where "Eurolab 2011" worked, will pass into the hands of the state, and no one there except the state will control fruits, vegetables and food for human consumption, Minister Vatev said. In comparison, he pointed out that in the case of a possible unilateral termination by the BFSA, fines should be paid in a significantly larger amount and lengthy court processes should be conducted.
The minister specified that the license is transferred to the Food Agency and the laboratory capacity of the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing becomes such that there will be almost no line of trucks there. One sample will be made for the time from 30 minutes to 6 hours. This will also be the time for samples at the second laboratory, where the BABH will work.
With an out-of-court settlement, the aim is to reduce the amount of compensation owed to BGN 10,000,000, and all improvements to the building carried out by the company, as well as all the laboratory equipment and machines in the laboratory, remain the property of the BFSA.
p>With the same agreement, the accreditation of the laboratory, which was built, equipped and accredited at the company's expense, passes to the BABH, where the Agency can immediately start work on laboratory analyzes of food and goods entering through the border crossing, and the fees for the tests will be included entirely in the state budget.
In this way, the opportunity for the company to search, incl. by court order, many times greater penalties, damages and lost profits, as they are due, according to the expertise of the expert. And last but not least, it will save the time required for legal proceedings and the significant costs due to them.
At the discussion in Starosel, Minister Vatev presented the progress on the legislative initiatives of the MFA, including the latest changes to the Law on the ownership and use of agricultural lands, the planned changes to the Law on cooperatives with the aim of promoting the creation of cooperatives and the bill on the supply chain of agricultural products and food.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Alexander Yotsev also took part in the meeting. The event is organized by the Union of Fruit and Vegetable Processors and the "Traditional Bulgarian Preserves" Association.