site.btaNearly 85% of Fruit, Vegetable Sales Are Unreported

Nearly 85% of Fruit, Vegetable Sales Are Unreported

Sofia, July 18 (BTA) - Nearly 85 per cent of sales of vegetables and fruits are unreported, warned the Bulgarian National Horticultural Union and the respective associations of potato producers and fruit growers. "Fresh fruits and vegetables sales incur losses for the national budget because as fast moving consumer goods no VAT is charged," said Slavi Trifonov, chairman of the Bulgarian National Horticultural Union.

Another problem for the industry is the bad regulation on the market. In order to sell fresh fruits and vegetables in Greece and Turkey producers should produce a batch of documents while Bulgaria does not have similar requirements in place. The associations urged the Agriculture Ministry to introduce a definition for fresh fruits and vegetables which will give an advantage to Bulgarian producers and will ensure the health of the citizens. Trifonov underscored that currently the Bulgarian market is flooded with fruits and vegetables which have travelled for 2,500 km, meaning that they have been treated with preservatives and are not fresh. The industry is optimistic after the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency decided to set up an separate unit to monitor the quality of fruits and vegetables.

Bulgarian food producers prefer Greek and Macedonian fruits and vegetable which are VAT free instead of the Bulgarian produced which is charged with 20 per cent VAT. The associations cited neighbouring Romania where short supply chains are introduced, where 51 per cent of produce sold at should be local or originating within 250 km from the country's' border. They said that this requirement should be introduced in Bulgaria too.  

Third comes the problem with support to production. The current government is the only one to consider fruit and vegetable production a priority but with no advantage to animal breeding and tobacco growing, Trifonov said. Fruit and vegetable growing now received only EU funding while the national support is no more than 3 million leva.

Trifonov also dwelled on the shortage of staff, noting that it is very difficult to find competent agronomists and farmworkers. "The skilled Bulgarians in this area went to work in Greece, Italy, while there are wholly Bulgarian farms in Britain," he said.

Dimitrichka Turpanova of the Dobroudja Institute of Farming too said that the shortage of workers is a problem that further increases the prices of fruit sold on markets in Bulgaria, which she said reached record-high levels this years.