site.btaProtesting Farmers Continue to Block Roads

Farmers used heavy-duty machinery and bales of hay to block the highway between Ruse and Veliko Tarnovo at the village of Polikraishte (North Central Bulgaria) for several hours on Monday. Some of them spilled tanks of milk at the site.

Grain growers started indefinite protests on February 6, raising demands about funding and the European Green Deal. Other farmers have joined the demonstrations since then. 

Tsanko Tsanev of the Bulgarian Agrifood Chamber (BAC) complained that BAC representatives were barred from talks at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food at the end of last week, which is why they continue their protests. He said the BAC represents 80% of the country's milk producers, 40% of grain producers, 100% of rice and rose growers, 90% of fruit and vegetable growers, and many beekeepers.

According to Tsanev, the protests will go on, because nothing has changed about the conditions of the Green Deal; funding for arable land has not been distributed proportionately; and the administrative burden on farmers has not been eased. These are some of the main demands of the protesters.

Agricultural associations reiterated their call for Agriculture and Food Minister Kiril Vatev's resignation. "Our demands are no more political than the demands of those who want Minister Vatev to keep his post," Tsanev said.

Marin Bogomilov, who chairs the Rossitsa Agricultural Cooperative in Polikraishte, stated: "We insist that they should let us do our work rather than burden us with requirements which make our hard toil in the fields even harder." Bogomilov argued that in 2023 farmers were in the red as the price of grain was low while production costs were high as the prices of fertilizers, pesticides and fuel as well as the minimum wage increased.

On Monday, protests were held in other parts of the country as well. Demonstrators in the Kyustendil area in southwestern Bulgaria blocked the road to Doupnitsa at the point where it branches off the Kyustendil ring road. The protesters threatened to continue the blockades until their 12 demands are met.

The protest organizers said the action will be carried over to Sofia on Tuesday, where heavy-duty farming machinery will be sent.