site.btaAssociation of Agricultural Landowners Reacts Sharply to Calls for State to Determine Rent for Agricultural Land Instead of Market

On Friday, the Bulgarian Association of Agricultural Landowners (BAALO) reacted sharply to calls for the state to determine the rent for agricultural land, instead of the market, and demanded an urgent meeting with Minister of Agriculture and Food Kiril Vatev.

The request for the state to regulate the rent price came from the National Association of Grain Producers and the Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber in mid-January, along with other legislative initiatives discussed at a meeting in the Council of Ministers on January 22. BAALO stressed that this contradicts the Constitution and the inviolability of private property.

BAALO expressed concern about the "lack of clarity and concreteness about the scope and content of the issues discussed at the above-mentioned meeting" and declared against "the non-transparent way in which measures and legislative initiatives are being pushed, which may negatively affect the interests of both tens of thousands of farmers, as well as nearly 3.5 million owners of agricultural land".

The BAALO letter is supported by the Bulgarian Farmers' Union.