Wholesale Prices of Food Products in Bulgaria Keep Dropping

Edward Stoychev, Chairman of Bulgaria's State Commission on Commodity Exchanges and Wholesale Markets, photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Edward Stoychev, Chairman of Bulgaria's State Commission on Commodity Exchanges and Wholesale Markets, has drawn attention to the fact that food prices at wholesale markets and commodity exchanges keep dropping on a daily basis.

In a Monday interview for the Focus news agency, he suggested that the only deviation was observed in flour prices, which remained unchanged, despite a nearly two-fold decrease as compared to 2012.

Stoychev predicted that the prices would keep dropping until autumn.

"The trend on global commodity exchanges is absolutely the same. Prices of both meat and food products keep dropping, and we cannot remain an island. In 2013, or at least over the next 3-4 months, we will only be able to comment on increasingly lower prices," he said, adding that he meant decreases in wholesale prices, which were not always tangible to consumers.

"I notice that when I go to buy something in a grocery or at a market, there is no trace of a dramatic decrease in retail prices. This can be attributed to the weak consumption in Bulgaria and on a global scale," he added.

Stoychev explained that the low consumption rates on international markets would lead to throwing out large quantities of food products or keeping them at storage facilities in a bid to prevent retail prices from dropping.