Inspections in shops in Bulgaria find food price speculation

There is food price speculation in the country. The caretaker Minister of Agriculture’s conclusion comes a week after the state launched inspections in shops.

Food shops checked for artificially inflated prices

So far, 200 checks have been carried out. Almost every shop has been found to be in breach, the Commission for Consumer Protection said on February 21.

Inspectors have found 90 types of unfair commercial practices.

The checks in the shops are carried out by the Commission for Consumer Protection, the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency and the National Revenue Agency.

The most frequent breaches are: fictitious promotions, insufficient quantities in promotions, discrepancy between the price on the shelf and the one actually paid at the cash registers, promotions of the type “buy two - get one free”, but it turns out that in fact all three items are paid for, inconsistencies in weight, last but not least products that are announced as organic or eco or produced in Bulgaria, but actually are not organic and are not produced in Bulgaria.

There are market anomalies and profiteering in retail, caretaker Minister of Agriculture said days after the state launched a campaign to tackle high prices and unfair commercial practices.

"There is no precise definition of speculation, but I can tell you all kinds of anomalies - most are seen in the prices of dairy products."

Institutional checks show that breaches were found in every second shop inspected.

Angel Dzhalev, member of the Commission for Consumer Protection: " Violations were found in almost every shop. The inspections found 90 types of unfair commercial practices, applied by traders."

The commission explains that an unfair commercial practice is any practice that leads customers to buy goods they would not buy if they knew their real value and qualities. The shorter shelf life of food products is also leading to another trend.

Angel Dzhalev, member of the Commission for Consumer Protection: "Often people travel a long distance to a particular shop in search of a particular product that they have seen at a very good price, but when they do not find it they buy everything else regardless of the price."

Gechev pointed out that there is, however, some downward trend in some prices.

Yavor Gechev, caretaker Minister of Agriculture: 'We even have indications of a number of prices that are starting to comply with the public opinion. The small shops and some of the big shops have started to be influenced by the policies that we are pursuing."

The trade unions point out that the measures are late, as the price hikes started as early as October 2021.

Violeta Ivanova, deputy director at the Institute for Social and Trade Union Studies, CITUB: "In the last quarter of 2022, on the world markets, there was a decrease in prices, of agricultural crops, of basic metals, which were actually reflected in producer prices."

However, this has not been felt by consumers. CITUB union supports the idea of public announcement of pricing by shops in order to have more transparency and reduce speculation and gave the example of milk.

"What is offered to the Bulgarian consumer increases from the farm to the shop by 340% - it means that there is speculation along the chain," she said.

The state continues with the checks aimed to shine a light on unfair commercial practices and urges members of the public to continue to report irregularities.