Dairy Sector Crisis Affects EU Market, Not Just Bulgaria - Agriculture Minister

Bulgaria’s Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva has suggested that the state is looking for mechanisms to support milk producers amid the ongoing crisis.

Taneva said in a Wednesday interview for the Bulgarian National Television that the crisis plaguing the dairy market was felt on an EU-level.

She argued that two things had led to the price collapse – the abolition of dairy quotas in the beginning of April and the imposition of an embargo on the export of dairy products to Russia.

Taneva pointed out that Bulgaria had requested support from the EU for coping with these problems back in December.

She explained that the EU had applied several instruments to help the dairy sector, adding that the measures were inapplicable to Bulgarian milk producers, which was why Bulgaria had called for the allocation of a financial package from the EU’s crisis budget.

Taneva, as cited by investor.bg, made clear that no decision had been made so far on the financial package request.
Stressing that the state could not guarantee a minimum price of milk, she said that the authorities were looking for mechanisms to assist milk producers.

Her comments came in response to demands of livestock farmers who are staging a national protest in Dimitrovgrad on Friday.

Milk producers insist on the urgent introduction of financial protection mechanisms.

In several months’ time the price of raw cow milk halved to a rate of BGN 0.35-0.40, with livestock farmers losing BGN 1000 a year per unit of cattle.

In her Wednesday interview Taneva cited as a great achievement the approval of the Rural Development Program by the European Commission.

She informed that the total budget of EUR 2.9 B included EUR 2.3 B in EU funding and urged livestock farmers to take advantage of the scheme.

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