site.btaSocialists Table Bill on Staple Foods Markup Ceiling

The parliamentary group BSP – United Left has tabled a bill to set a maximum markup cap on staple foods, said MP Nina Dimitrova. Dimitrova along with fellow MP Gabriel Valkov and Maya Manolova, chair of Rise Up BG movement, presented the bill. They argued that in recent years, Bulgarian citizens have been shocked by the continuous sharp increase in the prices of basic food products.

According to data from the National Statistical Institute (NSI), inflation in the country reached 34% between 2020 and 2025, while prices of essential food items soared by 150-200%. During this period, rice has increased by 83%, fresh milk by 119%, eggs by 150%, and butter by 112%, Dimitrova said.

Dimitrova emphasized the alarming price differences for identical products between major retail chains in Sofia and those in large European cities such as Berlin, Vienna, and Amsterdam. She described this price hike as a catastrophe, particularly for the 800,000 pensioners and 700,000 working poor in Bulgaria, who are bearing the brunt of these increases.

Gabriel Valkov added that the prices of basic products in the small consumer basket have increased by 120%. "The same goods in Bulgaria and Europe are not priced the same. Essential products we all use are twice as expensive in Bulgaria compared with the rest of Europe, despite the fact that wages here are half of those in the EU," he said.

Maya Manolova described the rise in the cost of basic food products as outrageous, noting that it far exceeds the inflation rate for this period, which is only 34%, according to the National Statistical Institute.

The bill, which was drafted last year and is now submitted by BSP, proposes setting a maximum markup on staple foods—not a price ceiling, but a markup ceiling. Manolovaexplained that European practices show that countries imposing direct price ceilings harm producers. Such a measure would give retail chains a powerful tool to destroy Bulgarian producers. 

The proposed bill sets a maximum markup of up to 10% on essential food items. "We propose 70 products, but the list will be determined by a decision of the Council of Ministers," Manolova added. 

These restrictions would apply to retail businesses selling food with an annual turnover of over BGN 10 million. Similar regulations are in place across most European countries. Last year, the number of products with regulated prices in France reached 5,000, and in neighboring Greece, supermarket chains were required to offer baskets of essential products with regulated price ceilings, Manolova noted.

She further said that there is no European country that does not regulate the prices of essential food products in one way or another. Bulgaria, which is the poorest country in Europe, has yet to implement such measures.