Covid-19: Bulgarian Cabinet orders retailers to sell local food production
Bulgaria’s government issued a decree on April 13 that requires supermarket chains to sell produce and other foodstuffs made in their regions, aiming to reduce the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on food producers in the country.
The decree was approved at a special sitting of the Cabinet, held by videoconference, and requires such products to be displayed in a way that makes it clear that the foodstuffs were produced locally, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.
Retailers were required to allocate “sufficient” space for such displays, the ministry said, but its statement did not specify exact space requirements, nor did it give a deadline for retailers to implement the decree.
The ministry said that the decree did not require retailers to change their existing supply contracts, but was meant to highlight local production to give consumers an informed choice choice. Foodstuffs affected by the decree were milk and dairy products, fresh meat and eggs, fish, seasonal fruit and vegetables, as well as honey.
According to the statement, a local producer was defined as one operating in the same administrative district as the supermarket in question, as well as any of the neighbouring administrative districts. In the case of capital city Sofia, which is a distinct entity from the district of Sofia, local producers are those coming from the district of Sofia, any neighbouring district, as well as the district of Plovdiv.
Additionally, the regulation only applied to retailer chains that had supermarkets in three or more administrative districts.
(Photo: Bartosz Wacawski/freeimages.com)
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