site.btaBeekeepers to Protest in Sofia Demanding State to Support and Protect Their Sector

Members of the Bulgarian Free Beekeepers national association will protest in front of the Agriculture and Food Ministry at 1 pm on Wednesday, it transpired from a press conference in Varna, on the Black sea, on October 5. 

Yasen Yanev, chairman of the association, pointed out that the state needs to support beekeeping and protect the sector. According to him, the organization has sent a letter to the Minister of Agriculture with a request that beekeepers receive financial assistance, but the answer was negative, arguing that no funds are earmarked in the budget. According to Yanev, the support should come under the de minimus rule. He pointed out that for three years now Bulgarian beekeepers have not received aid under this scheme, while their colleagues from neighbouring countries are making the most of this opportunity.

Beekeepers also demand that government laboratories be designated to carry out research into whether banned pesticides have been used in crop spraying. Yanev specified that currently such samples are only carried out in private laboratories, and beekeepers themselves have to pay for the service, the cost of which ranges from BGN 450 to 520.