The Ministry of Agriculture and Food is refusing to discuss with sunflower processors, respectively oil and meal producers and peeled sunflower producers, the consequences of the ban on sunflower imports from Ukraine and future measures. Companies are facing closure due to the lack of raw material at market prices, which will affect the whole sector, the national economy and social policy, according to Yani Yanev, chairman of the Oilseed Oil Producers Association in Bulgaria in a statement to the media on Tuesday. Bulgarian farmers refuse to sell sunflower at prices currently set by the international market. At the same time, it is also impossible to import raw material at market prices from Ukraine as the only option at this stage.
In the period from June 9 to date, three letters and requests for a meeting with the new team of the Ministry of Agriculture have been sent, but so far there has been no response to any of them, Yanev stressed. As a result, the association sent a letter to Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov aiming to discuss the problem at the highest level. The processors hope that a plan will be discussed with the government and that measures will be outlined to support the Bulgarian oil industry against the backdrop of restricted access to raw material, Yanev said. The association proposes that the meeting should also include representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Ministry of Economy and Industry, and the Ministry of Finance in order to discuss the effects of the introduction of restrictive measures on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine to date and the intentions to continue them after September 15, 2023.
No assessment has been done or published of the impact of the restrictive measure on imports of wheat, sunflower, rapeseed and maize on the national economy, the loss of revenue to the national budget and the limitation of the country's export share and potential, while at the same time representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture have discussed extending the ban indefinitely in talks with the European Commission.
At the end of August the harvesting and marketing of the 2023 sunflower crop started. According to the operational data of the Ministry of Agriculture, the available sunflower of the 2022 harvest at the beginning of August is in the order of 600,000 tons. The uncertainty surrounding Bulgaria's final position on the ban on oilseed imports from Ukraine after September 15 is leading to a limited supply of available raw material and creating tensions on the domestic market regarding future farm gate prices from the new harvest.
The situation with the inability of producers to adequately plan and secure the necessary quantities of sunflower needed for processing put at risk the price stability of the domestic market and Bulgarian consumers, the release said.
/RY/
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