site.btaFruit and Vegetable Branch Chamber Warns Against Passing Only Partial Amendment to Agricultural Producers Support Act

In a position statement sent to BTA, the Fruit and Vegetable Branch Chamber has voiced concern over a bill tabled by a group of MPs to amend the Agricultural Producers Support Act, which provides only for extending the possibility to submit applications without a qualified electronic signature for the 2026 and 2027 campaigns.

The Chamber stresses that it supports efforts to ease the administrative burden on farmers and considers the option to submit applications without a qualified electronic signature an important and necessary measure. At the same time, however, it points out that the envisaged provisions represent only a small part of the comprehensive bill submitted by the Council of Ministers, which has already passed first reading in the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Food and Forestry and was included in the National Assembly’s agenda earlier in February, but was not put to a vote in plenary.

According to the Chamber, the government’s bill was drafted by experts from the Agriculture and Food Ministry, has received the support of branch organizations, and contains strategic provisions of crucial importance for the development of the fruit and vegetable sector.

For example, the Chamber says that creating and maintaining digital geographic data on areas with greenhouses, hotbeds and permanent crops is a step toward real transparency, traceability of support, and limiting fictitious areas. In addition, conducting an inventory of existing areas with permanent crops, hotbeds and greenhouses is a key tool for cleaning up the system and protecting genuinely producing farmers.

The Fruit and Vegetable Branch Chamber also highlights the establishment of a Mutual Aid Fund as a risk management instrument, describing it as a vital mechanism for support in cases of adverse climatic events, natural disasters, diseases and pests.

According to the Chamber’s position, the fruit and vegetable sector is one of the riskiest and most vulnerable in Bulgarian agriculture. Without effective risk management mechanisms and without an accurate picture of actual production areas, there can be no talk of fair support and sustainable development, they say.

The Chamber argues that adopting only the shortened bill, limited solely to allowing applications without an electronic signature, would mean postponing the necessary structural reforms in the sector. It calls on MPs to support the full bill proposed by the Council of Ministers, which, in its words, contains comprehensive solutions and guarantees a fairer, more transparent and more sustainable framework for supporting agricultural producers.