Bulgaria insists on additional protection from the European Commission for Bulgarian agricultural producers, in addition to the EUR 16.75 million provided for the country from the crisis reserve, said Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev before a meeting of the advisory council on grain.
The minister recalled that the sector is currently affected by market anomalies as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "The position of the State is that we remain in solidarity with Ukraine, but we observe serious problems and as a result we asked the EC for crisis measures and a more balanced attitude towards the corridors of solidarity," said Gechev.
The participants in the advisory council were informed of an overview of the trends of the domestic and international grain market, as well as of current information on the state of crops in the country after a survey conducted in the period March 24-30. Areas sown with autumn crops in 2022 include 1,184,307 ha of wheat, 115,612 ha of barley, 7,514 ha of rye and 13,079 ha of triticale. Of the 103,955 ha of rapeseed sown, 8,659 ha failed as a result of uneven rainfall.
The data show that the assessment of the current state of the surveyed crops is "good" to "very good" for 83.0% of the wheat area (similar to 2022 - 84.0%) and for barley 81.0%, similar compared to the previous year. The phytosanitary status of the surveyed crops is defined as good. In the coming months, given suitable agro-meteorological conditions, feeding of the crops and carrying out plant protection measures, normal development of the autumn crops is expected. Given the current state of wheat and barley crops, a very good grain harvest is expected in 2023.
Available stocks of wheat reached 3,070,102 tonnes as of March 31, 1,555,405 tonnes of corn and 1,318,433 tonnes of black oilseed sunflower.
For their part, the grain producers said that as a result of the economic situation, the sector has reached a critical point and its future depends on the actions that will be taken in the coming months.