Bulgarian Producers Claim Carrefour Owes Them BGN 20 M in Payment Arrears

Bulgarian producers have not received BGN 20 M (EUR 10 M) in payments owed to them by supermarket chain Carrefour for deliveries made over the past two years, Made in Bulgaria trade union claimed at a press conference Tuesday. 

''This case is a clear example of the fact that any kind of schemes are possible in Bulgaria,'' stated Lukan Lukanov, a representative of the Union of Small and Medium Enterprises. '' Our problem with commercial chains is the unequal treatment they show to Bulgarian producers.'' 

''Close to 90% of supermarket chains in Bulgaria do not publish their financial reports, explaining that they are a part of their companies' top secret information,'' added a member of the Made in Bulgaria, Kantcho Stoytchev. 

Additionally, close to 800,000 small and medium food and beverage stores have gone bankrupt on account of the fact that a number of supermarket chains have located their stores in city centers, in the opinion of Kiril Vatev, representative of Association of Meat Processing Units in Bulgaria. 

Bulgarian producers stated that they are not going against any particular market chain but instead will be asking them all to comply with the already existing EU legislation.