The Parliamentary Committee on Economic Policy and Innovation adopted Tuesday at its extraordinary session a draft decision for Bulgaria to lift the ban on Ukrainian import of certain products after September 15, 2023. The final decision is to be taken in plenary. The National Grain Producer Association (NGPA) expressed its outrage at the decision in a statement sent to the media on Tuesday, and industry representatives present at the committee meeting did as well.
Bulgaria's draft position states that the country does not support the extension of the Ukrainian import ban beyond September 15, 2023, which allows wheat, rapeseed, sunflower, and corn to transit through Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, but bans the products' availability on the countries' domestic markets. The measure was introduced by the European Commission following protests by farmers in these countries.
The draft decision was submitted on Monday, September 11, by Kiril Petkov (CC-DB), Delyan Peevski (MRF), Atanas Atanasov (CC-DB), Hamid Hamid (MRF), Rumen Hristov (GERB-UDF) and Aleksandar Ivanov (GERB-UDF). Ten MPs voted in favour of the draft decision, four voted against, and two abstained.
"To help people in distress is noble, to help an occupied country in a severe economic crisis is solidarity, but to ignore the needs of one's own country at the expense of another looks more like betrayal," the NGPA said in its position paper.
According to the NPGA, lifting the ban on Ukrainian imports is the quickest and surest way to kill Bulgarian agriculture.
On Friday, the NGPA said that the collapse in agriculture is not just the closure of one company, but a domino that will disrupt many suppliers, partners, and long-time collaborators. "The agriculture sector provides over 100,000 jobs and its demise spells serious economic and social problems. The loss of one farmer is the loss of jobs and heralds serious economic and social problems," the NGPA said.
The Association recalls that the grain sector is the largest payer of economic rents and any disruption in the industry affects the food security of Bulgaria.
In the draft decision, the MPs claim that lifting the ban will not put the competitiveness of Bulgarian producers at risk, and the NGPA claims the exact opposite.
The organisation reminds that more than 15,000 grain farmers pay more than BGN 2.5 billion in economic rents and produce more than BGN 7 billion worth of produce on an annual basis, which are direct investments in Bulgaria's economy. The NGPA claims that the state has provided zero financial aid to the farmers to compensate for the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
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