Minister Vatev reminded the protesting beekeepers that they will receive de minimis

2023-10-11 16:32:13

Beekeepers will be supported de minimis this year, along with other animal breeders and the “Plant Breeding” sector, and the funds from the national budget will be directed primarily to the smallest agricultural producers. This was announced by the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Kiril Vatev, to protesting honey producers at a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Minister Vatev recalled that the support of BGN 47.5 million was included in the memorandum signed between farmers and the government on September 20. At the meeting, the beekeepers were informed that the aid will be distributed equally between the Crop and Livestock sectors, including beekeeping, and a methodology for the distribution of the funds is yet to be developed.

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The beekeeper Nikolay Gaidov: We don’t want money, we want a country on the borders!

Honey producers shared the difficulties they are currently experiencing due to low purchase prices and large amounts of unsold production.

The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food, Dejan Stratev, introduced the farmers to the legislative priorities of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and discussed with them issues related to the risk analysis of the food chain.

The farmers were also informed of data from the Agrostatistics Department at the Ministry of Health, according to which for the last five years, until 2022, between 10 and 12 thousand tons of honey are produced in the country, and the export varies between 10 and 12 thousand tons. The import from member states and from third countries is between 1642 to 5027 t, and last year the most copper was imported from Poland, Greece and Ukraine and Turkey.

The topic of laboratory analyzes of bee honey was also discussed at the meeting.

In conclusion, Minister Vatev stated that the management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is open to a dialogue with the producers and expects from them concrete proposals to support the market realization of Bulgarian honey.