THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION ADOPTS A FINANCIAL AID PACKAGE OF €210 MLN FOR VEGETABLE PRODUCERS

€210 mln is the final offer of the EC for the financial aid package to European farmers, hit by the collapse of sales due the epidemic in Europe. The regulation which specifies the budget allocation and the requirements for the applicants is expected to be adopted at a meeting of the Fruit and Vegetables Management Committee on June 14, 2011.

The latest proposal became public on Wednesday evening.

“Bulgarian vegetable producers will be compensated at a 100%,” said Miroslav Naydenov, Minister of Agriculture and Food, yesterday after a meeting with representatives of NGOs from the sector. It is assumed that cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, lettuces and peppers unsold because of the infection will be paid at prices that are 50% of the reference EU levels. “If we take cucumbers for example, it is estimated that the reference price for 2008-2010 was 45 euro cents or BGN 0.90. It turns out that Bulgarian producers will get BGN 0.45 per kilogram, instead the demanded BGN 0.40. We are talking about entirely European funds that will be remitted to the Paying Agency and their spending will be strictly controlled by the European Commission and OLAF,” said Naydenov. He warned that vegetable growers were expected to declare correctly their production with documents.

There is no danger that the resource will be insufficient because the current financial package covers the losses in the period May 26 to June 30. If the epidemic is not focalized and vegetables sales continue to follow a declining trend, the EC intends to increase the compensation package.

The losses for Bulgarian producers amount to BGN 1 mln per day and have already exceeded BGN 12 mln. The Bulgarian Gimel company, which is the largest producer of bio cucumbers, has incurred losses amounting to €500,000 so far. Some 90% of its products are exported to the EU, out of which 70% to the German market. “Our clients refuse the deliveries and the sales are blocked,” said Zornitsa Baycheva, a company representative. According to Borislav Sandov from the Association for Bio - products and Organic Farming, the compensation will not be enough to cover the losses of bio – producers. In Bulgaria, they are between 1.8% and 2% of all vegetable growers and Minister Naidenov promised to demand higher compensation for them