The Draft Law on the Agri-Food Chain is ready. This was announced by the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Dr. Georgi Tahov at a briefing in the Council of Ministers. He recalled that a month ago, following an appeal made by the Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food was tasked with developing a Draft Law on the Agri-Food Chain. According to him, the main goal of the law is to examine trade relations along the chain. “Based on these results, we must try to impose rules that will lead to a more correct distribution of added value throughout the agri-food chain. The deadline was March 15, and as of today, we are ready with it” announced Minister Tahov.
He emphasized that public consultations on the draft regulatory act with the interested branch organizations will start tomorrow. “We will take opinions into account and request feedback during these consultations,. We are ready to build on what we have already prepared as a bill," Minister Tahov also said. He pointed out that the document has several goals. "The first goal is to address the imbalance where traders retain most of the value added, leaving farmers at a disadvantage. We see that a large part of the added value along the food chain remains not with the producer, farmer or processor, but with the trader. We are convinced that by regulating the trade relations to achieve price cut," added Dr. Tahov. In his words, a symbiosis between the interests’ protection of the farmers, producers, processors and consumers was sought. "We have individually approached everyone. Their rights will be protected by contracts that will regulate trade relations and are limited by marginal mark-ups," the Minister of Agriculture was categorical. He explained that marginal mark-ups for the main players in the food chain was among the proposals given.