“The launch of the first electronic market for fresh fruits and vegetables is a step towards development of the sector,” announced Minister Desislava Taneva at the presentation of the e-market, developed by the National Union of Gardeners in Bulgaria (NUGB) and financed by the America for Bulgaria Foundation. The Minister greeted the creators of the innovative idea, expressing her satisfaction that this project realizes the objectives of many institutions, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. “This would shorten the chain from producers to consumers and ensure the quality and freshness of products, which is very important for today’s consumers”, pointed out Minister Taneva. She reminded that the two sub-sectors are priorities in the policy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and her team aims to increase the support for them.
The Minister assured that the Ministry works towards shortening the chain from producer to consumer, so next year Measure 16 'Cooperation' under Rural Development Program 2014-2020, will start to unite farmers, groups and producer organizations. They will be able to apply for planning, investment and development of local markets by product type. She specified that the application will be for three types of costs - operating costs, advertising in local markets and costs of investments in these markets, which will support up to 50 percent of the program.
Ms. Taneva highlighted that the support under Measure 9 "Establishment of groups and producer organizations" of the RDP remains for groups of organizations where the support amounted up to 10% of the total annual production offered on the market, which is more than double the support in the previous period. "This will motivate the producers to associate and realize the importance of organizing such groups to deal better with the planning of production and its realization, "said Minister Taneva.