site.btaOrganizers of Boycott against Supermarket Chains Express Support for Agriculture Ministry’s Agrifood Chain Bill

The organizers of the boycott against supermarket chains expressed full support for the agrifood chain bill drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. This transpired during a round table discussion on "Food Chain Markups: Problems and Solutions" held at the BTA National Press Club in Sofia.

“The drafting of this bill is a success of the boycott and of all Bulgarian citizens who showed civic activism and demanded that the state finally intervene in the regulation of prices of basic food products,” said Maya Manolova, former ombudsman of Bulgaria.

The boycott of the big retail chains started on February 13, and took place every Thursday afterwards. A month later, the public organizations behind the boycott announced that it would continue until real and effective measures were taken to reduce high food prices.

According to Manolova, the bill has their full support for four reasons. The first is that it is based on a bill regulating mark-ups on basic foodstuffs, which her team introduced at the beginning of the active boycott actions. As a second reason, Manolova pointed out that in the opinion of the Agriculture Ministry team and representatives of the largest food producers' associations, prices of basic food products would be reduced by at least 20%. The third reason is that the state will finally intervene in the regulation of basic food products and will limit mark-ups throughout the food chain. The fourth reason to support the bill is the fact that this is a success for the long-standing battle of food producers for a level playing field with retail chains that have a dominant market position. Furthermore, the bill spreads added value throughout the agrifood chain and puts an end to the practice of issuing reverse invoices.

“Public pressure must continue until the bill is adopted,” Manolova said.

Velizar Enchev, former ambassador to Croatia, expressed the opinion that the bill should be a hybrid between Maya Manolova's bill and that of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. 

Simeon Karakolev, co-chairman of the Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber and the National Sheep and Goat Association, pointed out that they supported this bill from the very beginning because they wanted a fair and decent distribution in all links of the chain - producers, processors, and consumers. 

In the words of Boyko Sinapov, head of the United Bulgarian Stock Breeders Association, the Bulgarian producer and consumer are the most disadvantaged in the agrifood chain, and hopefully this bill will change that.

“This struggle has been going on for 13-14 years, when our first attempts at legislative changes were made,” said Vladislav Mihailov, chair of the National Association of Dairy Processing Operators, adding that for the first time we are seeing something that will really work.

However, he stressed that the bill has three objectives and three instruments. “If even one of them is not constructed correctly and does not work properly, the whole point of the law goes down the drain,” Mihailov warned. 

The three main objectives of the bill are, in the most urgent order, to reduce the levels of final consumer prices of essential products, to increase transparency in how prices are formed, to distribute all financial resources more evenly and fairly along the food chain.

According to Mihailov, one thing that is missing is the principle of shortening the supply chain to avoid price and cost pressures. He added that the methodology of limiting the mark-ups of certain food groups and of eliminating unfair trade practices leaves room for improvement.