“The Minister of Agriculture is responsible for the quality of food, but not for the prices on the market. However, I cannot remain indifferent to this topic, especially when there are anomalies. That is why a staff was formed in the Council of Ministers, of which I am the vice-chairman”.
This is what the acting Minister of Agriculture Yavor Gechev commented to bTV on the subject of expensive foods in our country.
“Retail prices are determined by the market, but under certain conditions. If it is normal for the markup to be 20% in France and 100% in Bulgaria, then something is distorting the market. There are unfair trade practices and solidarity throughout the system. The market must also is regulated in some way so that it does not distort.
Among the distorting factors are the pricing structure and when you have tiered fees in contracts. In the brochures of the shops, a number of discounts are shown, and when you go to the place, these products are not there at all, and there are others at much higher prices”, pointed out Minister Gechev.
“The big retail chains put a number of fees. We want to introduce a regulation that says there has to be a ‘buy’ price and a ‘sell’ price. All the other fees have to be in there so that the consumer and all the structures can clearly , who are responsible for the consumer, to be able to track what is happening with prices and provide information to the public,” he also pointed out.
“We purposely raised the topic of prices in the air. This topic is important, 40% of family budgets go to food. We want permanent measures. On the day we did the first briefing from the Council of Ministers, almost all the products we are researching were on 25% promotions.
There will be a permanent effect when we are constantly dealing with the subject and there are regulated mechanisms for this to happen, and a normal state that cleans up the wrong things. We hope that the next governments and parliament will continue what we have done. We want to propose a Food Trade Act. This should be an ongoing process. I hope that the media noise will make consumers sensitive to price irregularities,” said the Minister of Agriculture.
“There is a statement from the current Swedish Presidency of Europe that the budget for the next framework period should be opened and, according to inflation, the given parameters of the strategic plans should be compensated. Bulgaria will submit an independent declaration and inform the European institutions that it wants the equalization not only with inflation, but also with subsidies throughout the European Union. The countries on the eastern flank of Europe have the lowest aid, and they suffer the most from their proximity to the war in Ukraine. Injustice is twofold, and solidarity is one of the main values of the EU,” said Yavor Gechev.
What else he commented on – listen in the video.
