site.btaSeptember 19, 1990: Crowds Queue Up at Supermarkets across Bulgaria as Food Shortages Get Severe

Huge queues formed outside supermarkets in Bulgaria in September 1990 as a result of severe shortages of staples at a time of a severe economic and political crisis, as the country transitioned from a planned to a market economy.

Communism collapsed in Bulgaria in November 1989 with the ouster of longtime leader Todor Zhivkov. In the following year, the country took its first steps towards democracy and capitalism, but a working economic system had yet to be set up. The state-controlled economy had floundered, and centralized distribution of food and goods was breaking down.

The Bulgarian economy was in freefall: production dropped and inflation soared. The inflation rate was estimated to be about 10%. Foreign debt exceeded USD 10 billion, a government report stated. The State could no longer afford to import prime necessities. The Bulgarian currency was devaluing rapidly, and wages lagged far behind.

The supply chain was in disrupted, as the state-run distribution system was falling apart. Former Soviet Bloc trade systems like Comecon (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) were disintegrating, leading to suspended imports. Many products, even essentials like cooking oil, rice, flour, sugar, meat, cheese and soap, simply disappeared from shop shelves.

Rumours of price hikes and worsening shortages caused mass panic. People queued up for hours, even overnight, just to get limited rations. Entire families would take turns waiting in line to secure a spot.

As food shortages grew so severe, sugar, cooking oil and cheese were rationed for the first time since World War II. According to then Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov, rationing was the only feasible solution in the short term since no one was prepared either economically or psychologically to raise prices. Rationing was not viable in the long term as it would block a reform of the system but it brought some social justice - at least temporarily, Lukanov said in an interview.

The prime minister singled out economic reform as the top priority of his government, which had acted to end the system of fixed prices for agricultural products and was doing the same for consumer goods and services, hoping to have 40% of prices liberalized by the end of the year. Bulgaria was embarking on the establishment of a "national currency market" as a step toward making the lev convertible.

Between 1990 and 1993, Bulgaria's economy contracted by more than 25%, while successive governments introduced elements of reform without tackling essential structural changes. Severely undermined by the dismantling of the centrally planned economy, the very high rate of inflation and financial collapse, the standard of living fell by about 40%.