site.btaGrain Farmers to Hold Protests Against Agricultural Imports from Ukraine

At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Grain Producer Association (NGPA), held Friday, a decision was taken to hold effective protest actions between March 29 to 31 at the border crossings at Vidin, Ruse, Silistra and Kardam in Northern Bulgaria, NGPA told President Rumen Radev, Prime Minister Galab Donev and Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev.

NGPA's demands are that Bulgaria should be exempted from the validity extension of EU Regulation 2022/870 of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 30, 2022 concerning the duty-free import of goods of agricultural origin from Ukraine.

The reasons for the protest is the severely worsened competitiveness of Bulgarian farmers due to the liberalized trade in agricultural goods with Ukraine; the difficult situation in the agricultural sector, as Bulgarian farmers face the real threat of mass bankruptcies, inability to pay rents and significant inter-firm indebtedness; the lack of the usual market activity by traders to buy Bulgarian grain and oilseeds; the fact that market prices in the last

The NGPA will coordinate further protest actions together with the entire agricultural sector of Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.