Farmers prepare protests if grain imports from Ukraine resume

Farmers from all sectors are ready to protest against the decision to resume grain imports from Ukraine.

According to them, this would undermine the ability of grain producers to sell their harvest. At a media briefing on September 13, Iliya Prodanov, chairman of the National Association of Grain Producers, said that the import of grain from Ukraine is a threat to the sector, not because it will reduce profits, but because it will lead to inability of the producers to cover the costs they have invested.

"All countries do something to protect the interest of their farmers. Only our state does things that nobody wants from it," they point out.

The grain growers said they were shocked by yesterday's decision of the Economic Policy and Innovation Committee to lift the ban on grain imports from Ukraine and said political decisions should not be to the detriment of domestic farmers.

Grain imports from Ukraine should resume, government says.

"The ugliest thing is that this decision of the committe was influenced by the oil producers' lobby," the farmers commented and ended the press conference with the sentence "He who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind".

In the coming days, the farmers will be ready with a schedule of protest actions, which, in addition to the issue of grain imports from Ukraine, the protest will be about the failure of the state to fulfill its promises to the different sectors.

Earlier today, Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said that the ban on Ukrainian grain imports has caused losses to the treasury to the amount of 146 million BGN.