site.bta Growers Protest Delayed and Cheap Purchase of Tobacco

Growers Protest Delayed and Cheap Purchase of Tobacco

Blagoevgrad, Southern Bulgaria, December 12 (BTA) - Tobacco
growers from the southern region of Gotse Delchev are protesting
Friday and Saturday against the delayed and slow purchase of
their produce, and the low purchase prices this year.

Only a third of the purchasing companies have started work and
every day of delay results in worsening quality of the tobacco,
Arben Mimenov, chairman of a union of producers of Oriental
tobacco, told BTA.

The going purchase prices are between 3.80 and 5.30 leva per
kilo. With any price below 6 leva, the producer makes a loss,
Mimenov said.

He said people are on the brink of dispair and their protests
are spontaneous.

The chairman of a new association of producers of Basma tobacco,
Ivan Sabahlukov, said that the situation is the same every year
at this time of the year and nothing ever changes.

He said that only three companies are purchasing tobacco in the
southern regions of Haskovo and Svilengrad and they have only
six purchase shops for 72 villages, which makes the purchase
campaign very slow. Also, producers are disgruntled over the low
price they are paid and the high share of tobacco which is
rated as poor during the purchase and for which they paid
nothing.

Local producers are preparing protests, Sabahlukov said.

In a declaration on behalf of his Movement for Rights and
Freedoms (MRF), Lyutvi Mestan urged all parliamentary forces to
forget their partisan passions and try to address "the chronic
problems" of tobacco growers.

Mestan said that the weather conditions are unfavourable, the
tobacco catches mould and will soon be unfit for sale, which
will bring starvation to tens of thousands of Bulgarian
families.

"I am a tobacco grower's son. A family can produce 1 tonne at
best. With a price of 4 leva, it makes 4,000 leva of which 2,400
leva is production costs. This leaves an income of 1,600 leva
for the family. Even if only one family member is registered as
a tobacco grower, he owes 1,702.80 leva in social and medical
insurance," said the MRF leader.

He said that the Agriculture Minister together with the Finance
Minister and the Association of Tobacco Producers, should meet
with all tobacco merchants and agree a timeframe for stepping up
the purchase campaign and reasonable pruchase prices.

The MRF leader reiterated his party's position against
contemplated legislative changes which raise the contributory
income for tobacco growers to 420 leva from 240 leva. This
provision should be dropped, or else over 100,000 Bulgarian
citizens will be doomed to famine, Mestan said.

BSP-Left Bulgaria insists that the ruling majority should
include in the 2015 budget national complementary payments for
tobacco growers of the same size they got in 2014.

Kristian Vigenin of the Left said that only a quarter of the
Oriental tobacco has been purchased and argued that a role
should be guaranteed for the State in the grading of tobacco.

He said that as a result of the policy of the current majority,
including the raised contributory income, each tobacco producer
will earn 100 leva less each month, which makes a reduction of
the disposable income by 200-400 leva per family per month.

According to Vigenin, tobacco growing has a future, "contrary to
the political propaganda". "It generates an income of some 1
billion leva in excise duty and VAT for the public purse and
this money can be used to finance schools, hospitals and
kindergartens, it can help other sectors of agriculture. This
will require an annual support of 100-120 million leva," said
Vigenin.