Today BAF and its National Branch of the Union of the market-gardeners sent to the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry in the National Assembly, Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board to Ministery of Agriculture and Food and the BTA an open letter expressing their concern of the extremely difficult situation of the Bulgarian vegetable-growing. Left without any assistance from the State the market-gardeners still find their own strength and resources to produce quality products on the market demand for both fresh consumption and providing the necessary material to the manufacturing industry . However, they face very serious difficulties in its realization, mainly due to uncontrolled imports of highly subsidized products from such neighboring Turkey. The absence of an adequate policy from our Government on this issue lead to the fact that at present subsidized Turkish carrots are flooding the market with 50-60 tons per day in low market prices, but our fields decay with over 20,000 tons of high quality carrots, which in the future will be freezing or be realized below their cost.

The open letter urges the Bulgarian authorities to urgently intervene in a legal way to impose import taxes of Turkish carrots according to their quality. Otherwise, the ranks of the protesting farmers increasingly will be expanded at the expense of producers of vegetables.