site.btaThis Year's Fruit, Vegetable Production to Receive Fivefold the Subsidy in 2012 - Experts

This Year's Fruit, Vegetable Production to Receive Fivefold the Subsidy  in 2012 - Experts

Sofia, March 5 (BTA) - The budget set down under the coupled
support scheme for fruit and vegetables with a notification to
the European Commission at August 1, 2014, stands at
approximately 79 million leva annually. This is a fivefold
increase compared to the budget under the scheme for specific
support for fruit and vegetables in 2012 and coupled support is
introduced for the first time, experts from the Ministry of
Agriculture and Food told BTA. They were asked to comment
whether these subsidies are comparable to those in other EU
member-states, more specifically Greece, which is known to
subsidise these productions considerably, as a result of which
the Bulgarian market is flooded with Greek produce.

The experts were asked why the subsidy for fruit and vegetables
in Bulgaria is still much smaller than that in Macedonia, even,
which is not a member of the EU, and how it will cope with the
competition of these markets. They were adamant that Bulgaria's
main priority in the negotiations related to the Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform was to increase the limit of
coupled schemes. In the 2015 campaign this country will use the
opportunity to provide 13 per cent of the limit of direct
payments for Bulgaria for coupled schemes and an additional 2
per cent for coupled support for protein crops. In comparison,
the experts referred to 2013, when Bulgaria was allowed to set
aside only 3.5 per cent, and to 2014 when it was allowed 6.5 per
cent.

There are three schemes under which fruit and vegetable
producers can be supported as of 2015, with a separate budget
under each, according to the requirements of the producer
organisations. These are a scheme for coupled support for fruit
producers, one for coupled support of (field) vegetable
producers and one for support of (hothouse) vegetable producers.


The tangibly increased budget under the fruit and vegetable
schemes, however, is just one of the many advantages of the
notified schemes. In order to ensure that more farmers have
access to support, the variety of fruit and vegetables that can
be eligible under the schemes has been increased, the experts
said.

The scope of the schemes covers the entire territory of the
country and support will be provided for different quality
produce, not only top quality as it was until now. Producers
will be supported by both this scheme, with additional
cumulative support under the single area payments scheme system,
the greening scheme and redistributive payment.

The European Commission has presented an analysis focused on
coupled support, which member-states will apply in the 2015-2020
period. This analysis, the Ministry says, shows that the
largest budget at EU level (42 per cent) has been set aside for
the "Beef and veal" sector, followed by the "Milk and dairy
products" sector with 18 per cent, the "Mutton and goat meat"
sector with 11 per cent, the "Protein crops" sector with 12 per
cent, the "Fruit and vegetables" sector with 5 per cent and the
"Sugar beet" sector with 4 per cent.

Bulgaria has notified the European Commission that the total
budget under the three schemes will be slightly over 40 million
euro. In absolute terms, Bulgaria has set aside the largest
amount of funds in support of fruit and vegetables in the entire
EU, the experts claim. In comparison, Greece is expected to
provide about 16 million euro annually for this sector.

The countries that will provide considerable support for the
production of fruit and vegetables (over 5 million euro
annually) include France, Spain, Poland, Italy, Romania, Hungary
and the Czech Republic. Slightly over 40 million euro, or
one-fifth of the total annual EU sum for fruit and vegetables
(200 million euro), will be extended to Bulgaria, so the experts
hope Bulgarian fruit and vegetable producers will be in a
favourable position as part of the common market in
2015-2020.