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After Brussels threatened our country with a lawsuit due to the requirement that hypermarkets had to offer Bulgarian products, the Bulgarian government quietly abolished this requirement.
Its abolition was done in the most subtle and silent way: the decree containing the quota obligation for Bulgarian products was valid until December 31 and was not renewed in the new year, according to an inspection by Mediapool. At the same time, some retail chains – Billa, Lidl, Kaufland, Fantastico and ProMarket – announced Monday that they had signed a voluntary agreement to provide space in their stores for household items.
Hypermarkets: the decree was absolutely illegal
Checks in the latest issues of the State Gazette show that Borissov’s cabinet has not renewed Decree 70, which required chains to make room for Bulgarian products and that it was in place until December 31, 2020.
The networks themselves continue to believe that the provision was generally illegal.
“The government decree expired at the end of the year. Most importantly, this decree was illegal. The European Commission also initiated a process against it. These positive results reported by the Ministry of Agriculture (to increase the number of Bulgarian products in chains – ba) are due to the voluntary measures of the retail chains and their good cooperation with producers and farmers, and not to the agreement “Yordan Mateev, Executive Director of the Association for Modern Commerce (SMT), told Mediapool.
He added that the decree was declared illegal on November 4 of last year. and at the request of the Administrative Court – Sofia Region.
Mediapool asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Food directly if it intends to renew the decree that obliges hypermarkets to have quotas for Bulgarian products, and awaits a response. However, Mediapool sources said there were no such plans.
Finally, at the end of October last year, the EC asked Bulgaria to abolish the mandatory supply of local products in hypermarkets and retail stores and threatened to take the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Communities if it was not done. The EC’s motive was that the free movement of goods, services and capital in the EU common market was being violated.
“Bulgarian legislation obliges retailers to prominently display and provide special outlets for local food products such as milk, fish, fresh meat and eggs, honey, fruits and vegetables, as well as to purchase 90% of the milk and dairy products. These obligations restrict the free movement of goods enshrined in Article 34 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) “., were motivated by the EC.
So far, the Ministry of Agriculture has maintained that “in no way is it the supply of imported products from other countries and products that can be marketed in all stores in the country.” Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva noted that the requirement was introduced to help Bulgarian farmers during the pandemic.
Voluntarily for one year, hypermarkets provide space for BG products
Meanwhile, it became clear that some of the retail chains will continue to voluntarily reserve space for Bulgarian products this year. On December 31, 2020, Billa, Lidl, Kaufland, Fantastico and ProMarket signed a memorandum with 8 measures, to be implemented until December 31, 2021, and longer if necessary.
Each of these companies will provide on their sites a place for the sale of products of Bulgarian origin or produced by Bulgarian producers, including medium and small regional producers. It is specified that the batteries will be placed in hypermarkets according to whether they are dairy, meat, eggs, etc.) and according to the seasonality of fruits and vegetables, etc.
Hypermarkets also promise marketing support for more recognizable Bulgarian products. “Traders will invest in additional marketing positioning of individual products from Bulgarian national and regional manufacturers,” said the Association for Modern Commerce.
The chains will also host farmers markets, as some of them did last year in their store parking lots. “Merchants will carry out marketing communications for each individual event in order to attract the maximum number of consumers,” said the Association for Modern Commerce.
Billa, Lidl, Kaufland, Fantastico and ProMarket are also committed to “making efforts to train small and medium regional producers.” The hypermarkets participating in the memorandum promise to agree shorter payment terms with Bulgarian producers. “This will provide faster liquidity to producers and they will be able to better plan their business. The companies will carry out individual negotiations to determine the commercial conditions: prices, quantities, quality, terms, etc.”, added the SMT. .
Hypermarkets also indicate that they are willing to participate in working groups in the Ministry of Agriculture to help Bulgarian producers with ideas. “The objective is to find solutions and develop a mechanism coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, which will promote various forms of legal association of producers to meet the quantitative and certification requirements of traders in favor of the Bulgarian consumer and the sustainable development of the manufacturing country, “says the Association for Modern Commerce.
368 new contracts with Bulgarian producers
In the period March-October 2020, the members of the Association for Modern Commerce, who own a total of around 40% of the trade of fast-moving consumer goods in our country and have almost 500 stores, have concluded 368 new contracts with Bulgarian food suppliers. “These products are supplied by both large national producers and small regional companies. Over the past 8 months, Bulgarian products worth more than BGN 1.1 billion have been sold in the six retail chains.”they say from there.
The data shows that almost 65% of the range in the main food categories is made up of Bulgarian products. They are supplied by between 160 and 600 national suppliers, with whom each of the six companies works.
The study also indicates that 73% of the range of the category “Bread and bakery products” is supplied by national bakers.
Most of these items can be found at ProMarket, where the bakery products are 100% Bulgarian.
In second place is the category “Meat and meat products” with 70% Bulgarian products. At T Market the beef and pork are 100% Bulgarian, and at “Fantastico” the chicken is only from Bulgaria, as well as 99% of the beef.
In third place is the category “Milk and dairy products” with a 69% share in the range. Dairy products also experienced a 5% increase in the share of domestic products compared to the previous year.
The survey data shows that 44% of fruits and vegetables in Billa, Kaufland, Lidl, T Market, ProMarket and Fantastico are grown in Bulgaria.
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