site.btaBoycotting of Retail Chains Will Continue until Real Food Price Reduction Measures Are Taken, Organizers Say

The public organizations behind the recent boycotts of retail chains Wednesday said that more boycotts will follow until real and effective measures are taken to reduce the high prices of food products, the organizers said at a BTA-hosted news conference in Sofia. They called on consumers to boycott supermarkets on Thursday, a month after the first boycott.

Velizar Enchev, a member of the initiative committee that organized the previous boycotts and former ambassador of Bulgaria to Croatia, called on Bulgarians not to shop in supermarkets on March 13 and not to be fooled by the discounts at those shops announced for Thursday. The boycott is for pensioners, the socially disadvantaged and the working poor as well, Enchev noted. The boycott is a battle not for a small discount but for promotional prices to become permanent. The boycott should force the power holders to impose a state regulation on prices, Enchev explained.

Maya Manolova, former national ombudsman and head of the Rise Up.BG civil platform, said that the boycott equals civil pressure that citizens must apply to make the government and MPs take real measures to reduce prices. Manolova called on Agriculture and Food Minister Georgi Tahov to present the agri-food chain bill being drafted. "We want to see whether the bill is not just about the Agriculture Ministry washing its hands, whether there are real measures that would limit the intermediaries and resellers as well as the overpricing along the entire food chain," Manolova said. 

Emil Georgiev, head of the Consumers Federation, said that the State, represented by the Agriculture and Food Ministry, should finally take a position. He expressed the hope that the agri-food bill will be ready in the coming days.