Imports from Ukraine: Ban on more than 20 products in force from today

As of today, April 24, the ban on the import of more than 20 food products from Ukraine to Bulgaria is in force for the next two months. Among them are wheat, sunflower seeds and corn. All goods from Ukraine can transit through Bulgaria, but should have a seal placed on them at the border. Against this backdrop, tensions continue between sunflower seeds producers and processors over the prices at which produce is sold. They had a meeting today but no agreement has been reached.

Bulgaria temporarily bans food imports from Ukraine as of April 24, transit corridors remain open

The idea of today's meeting at the agriculture ministry was for sunflower producers and processors to come to acceptable solutions for both sides on both the quantities and prices of sunflower seeds that are in warehouses in the country. So far, there has been no agreement. The sunflower seeds processors continue to argue that the suspension of imports will make their work more difficult, that there will be a shortage of seeds and that this will affect sunflower oil exports.

"The sunflower processing capacity we have built in Bulgaria exceeds by several times what Bulgaria produces in sunflower seeds in one marketing year. In this sense, the industry needs these imports in order to fully use the available capacity, in which literally hundreds of millions of euros have been invested over the past 10 years," said Georgi Koynov, CFO of a processing company.

According to sunflower seeds producers, however, even before the war in Ukraine, processors were doing well with the amounts of domestic produce and imported minimal quantities.

"We agree that sunflower seeds processors have huge processing capacities. But what they have also announced is that they need about 300,000 tonnes per month. The new sunflower harvest is four months away, which makes 1 million and 200,000 tonnes of sunflower. At the moment, according to the ministry's data, we have one million and 300,000 tonnes of sunflower in Bulgarian warehouses, which is enough to cover their needs until the new harvest without the need for imports," said Ilia Prodanov from the Association of Grain Producers.

By the end of the week, the results on the quality of Ukrainian grain are expected. Three shipments of wheat were found to have beetles. Some of the grain has been processed and some returned.