Bulgaria damages from Russian sanctions estimated at 10M euro
The only damages suffered by Bulgarian firms as a result of the EU-Russia sanctions stand-off have been in the agriculture sector, where Bulgarian farmers lost an estimated 10 million euro so far, Bulgaria’s caretaker Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov said on September 12.
The lost revenue came as a result of the first round of Russian counter-sanctions, which banned the import of various foodstuffs from European Union member states, Mitov said in an interview with Bulgarian news agency BTA.
The EU has allocated 125 million euro to compensate producers affected by the Russian import ban, on a first-come, first-served basis. Last week, Bulgaria’s agriculture ministry began taking in applications from Bulgarian farmers, with caretaker Agriculture Minister Vassil Grudev saying that Sofia would seek up to 10 million leva (about five million euro) of the EC allocation.
In addition to the lost revenue from the Russian ban, Bulgarian farmers feared a loss of market share as a result of produce from other EU member states, initially meant for the Russian market but now redirected towards Bulgaria, public broadcaster Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reported.
(Photo: tonypowell/sxc.hu)
