Bulgaria’s caretaker Agriculture Minister Georgi Tahov has called on the European Commission (EC) to ban the import of eggs of Ukrainian origin into Bulgaria, according to a statement by the Agriculture Ministry.
Tahov made the call while attending a meeting of EU agriculture ministers on September 23.
Domestic production in Bulgaria is being severely affected by the import of eggs from Ukraine, he said.
The prices of the imported eggs were significantly lower than those of Bulgarian market “which puts serious pressure on prices on the domestic market,” Tahov said.
He said that the protective measures taken so far at the EU level were not achieving the expected deterrent effect and are not a sufficient factor to alleviate the situation on the egg market in Bulgaria.
“Each country monitors the normal course of business processes in its country to protect the interests of its agricultural producers,” Tahov told reporters earlier on September 23.
He said that the goal is to find the intersection at which the rights of the Bulgarian producers will be preserved.
“We are for firm support to the people of Ukraine, but this should in no way cost bankruptcies and violate the rights of our farmers.”
Bulgaria had presented the EC the data on which to base a decision, Tahov said.
The head of the Union of Poultry Breeders in Bulgaria, Ivaylo Gulubov, told Bulgarian National Television on September 24 that about 10 per cent of the eggs in shops in Bulgaria were of Ukrainian origin.
He said that Bulgarian production was sufficient to satisfy the needs of the domestic market for consumers and for industry.
Gulubov said that before the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian eggs were rarely seen in Bulgaria or throughout the rest of the European Union.
“In the first two months of this year, the import of Ukrainian eggs into our country is about 1000 tons. Last year, for the whole year, about 1000 tons of eggs were imported,”he said.
According to him, incentives and subsidies should have been granted for the export of Ukrainian eggs to third countries.
He said that they were currently undercutting the price of Bulgarian eggs by about 10 per cent.
The reason is that in 2011, the use of conventional cages was discontinued in Bulgaria due to higher standards for animal welfare. However, such cages are used in Ukraine, Gulubov said.
