Bulgarian stores continue to have huge supplies of Polish tomatoes, even though domestic ones are considered to be better and prices are the same. This was stated to Agrozona by Slavi Trifonov, from the National Horticultural Union of Bulgaria. Apart from Poland, large quantities are also imported from Turkey.
Bulgarian tomatoes are still sold in markets and neighbourhood shops, but according to Trifonov, due to the pressure from imports, Bulgarian producers have not been able to increase their production. He claims that Bulgarian growers could perfectly supply supermarkets with domestic production and that there is also no problem to provide fruits and vegetables for school schemes.
Trifonov also stressed that a huge problem affecting Bulgarian producers, which has been left unresolved for 10 years, is the fact that no VAT is charged for the fruits and vegetables imported from abroad, so processors prefer to buy their raw materials from overseas. This results in a loss of competitiveness for Bulgarian growers.
