Bulgarian farmers will hold a new protest on Friday to demand that the government stop allowing duty-free imports of cheap Ukrainian grain, Bulgarian Association of Grain Producers head Ilia Prodanov has said, UrduPoint reports.
The previous protest took place in late March, with Bulgarian farmers blocking the roads leading to border points through which Ukrainian grain is imported. The Friday blockade will be coordinated with Romanian farmers across the border.
"The action starts at 10 a.m. (07:00 GMT), and our actions are coordinated with Romanian colleagues who will be on the other side of the border," Prodanov told the state-run Radio Bulgaria.
The four-hour protest will take place in the Bulgarian towns of Ruse and Kardam, he added.
According to Prodanov, 3.5 million tonnes of Bulgarian wheat and 1 million tonnes of Bulgarian sunflower seeds are sitting in warehouses at the moment.
He cited farmers in northern Bulgaria as complaining that the traffic of trucks carrying Ukrainian grain only intensified after their protest last week.
"If today's protest is not heard in Brussels, we will think about broader actions with other countries who share our opinion," Prodanov added.
In late March, the prime ministers of several European countries appealed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to resolve the crisis caused by the influx of Ukrainian grain. The letter, signed by the prime ministers of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia said that a significant increase in supplies from Ukraine has caused an unprecedented growth in imports of grain, oil crops, eggs, poultry, sugar, Apple juice, berries, apples, flour, honey and pasta products. On April 5, Polish Minister of Agriculture Henryk Kowalczyk resigned due to his inability to tackle the unbridled inflow of Ukrainian grain.
