Bulgaria worries about its own chicken eggs

The message of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of Bulgaria states that the country will demand the suspension of the import of eggs originating from Ukraine at the next meeting of the EU Council on Agriculture and Fisheries. This event will take place tomorrow, September 23, in Brussels.

Regarding the situation, the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Heorhiy Takhov, said during a meeting with farmers that the country has the opportunity to introduce protective measures in accordance with the agreement on the duty-free regime for Ukraine. In turn, Bulgarian farmers insist that the restoration of tariff quotas for Ukrainian eggs by the European Commission in July is not enough, and demand a complete ban on the import of Ukrainian eggs.

It is known that in 2024 the import of eggs from Ukraine to Bulgaria increased by 400%. As the head of the Industrial Poultry Association, Daniel Bozhankov, said, the import duty does not work - it is only 5% of the wholesale price of eggs, so it was not possible to stop the import flow. In fact, supplies even increased after the measure was introduced. According to the specialist, Ukrainian eggs are 20-30% cheaper than eggs from local farmers. He explained that Ukrainian producers manage to keep production costs relatively low because they do not have to adhere to European poultry standards.

Therefore, Daniel Bozhankov claims that cheap imports cause "millions in losses" to local farmers, so the association demands that the authorities call on the European Commission to activate the ban on the import of Ukrainian eggs within 120 days. If their demands are not met, they are ready to hold mass protests. In addition, he said, imports are also preventing the Bulgarian poultry industry from recovering from the large-scale outbreak of bird flu in 2023, during which 1.5 million laying hens died. This led to a significant drop in Bulgaria's self-sufficiency in eggs.