Bulgaria has requested the European Commission to come up with a decision for the opening of an extraordinary horizontal measure COVID - 19. This was stated by Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Dessislava Taneva during a meeting of Аdvisory Board On Fruit and Vegetable Production, held today via video conference. "We propose to redirect unspent funds from the Rural Development Program 2014-2020, the Maritime and Fisheries Program 2014-2020 and the National Program for Support to the Wine and Wine Sector 2019-2023 to stimulate the most vulnerable producers. “The Fruit and Vegetables sector is one of the affected sectors and the ministry’s management is aware that the producers are currently experiencing difficulties in selling their products, because all farmers’ markets, restaurants and hotels are closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. All the countries are having the same problems in this pandemic situation,” the minister said=
During the meeting, it became clear that a mechanism together with the social ministry is being sought for the unemployed people to be engaged with agricultural activities.
"Information on producers, making online delivery will be uploaded on the ministry’s website within a few days. This way, we want to facilitate consumers for the chance Bulgarian goods to be delivered to their homes. The situation in the world is such that we have to think for delivering food to addresses, "Desislava Taneva explained.
Deputy Minister Chavdar Marinov informed that over 5000 profiles are currently activated in the Register of Organic Farming. "There are 220 accounts that are pending and about 500 not yet verified. They will be invited to confirm and activate their profiles in the register,” Marinov explained. According to him, all the information has been uploaded in the control system.
Experts have briefed the manufacturers on the amendments, adopted to the State of Emergency Measures Act, related to the tax insurance requirements for the emergency period. The representatives of the branch organizations in the Fruit and Vegetables sector have also been informed about the progress of the 2020 Direct Payments Campaign.
A proposal for the extension of application term has been made by the Fruit and Vegetables sector and approved during the meeting. This way the farmers will have 10 days to submit a written application for monitoring of their crops.