The delay in payments of direct subsidies for 2016, which has already created discontent among agricultural producers, is likely to be shorter than originally scheduled, at least for fruits and vegetables. This became clear last week after a meeting between Prime Minister Gerdjikov and representatives of associations from the sector.
When the schedule for the payment of the remaining 1.2 billion Lev (approximately 613.9 million Euro) in direct subsidies for last year's campaign was published, it became clear that most of the payments would be made as late as April, which is later than usual. This led to the discontent of producers, who even said they were willing to organise protests. Eventually, there was a meeting between fruit and vegetable producers and the Prime Minister last Tuesday and the former were assured that the State Fund "Agriculture" would do everything in its power to pay the subsidies for fruits, vegetables and greenhouse production in the period from 27 March to 1 April. So if this deadline is met, the delay will be reduced.
This delay in the payment of subsidies for 2016 was reported to be due to administrative problems, as well as to the delay in the calculation of penalties for incorrectly declared areas for support. In that sense, adjustments had to be made to meet new EU rules for inspections and the calculation of fines, which hadn't been done in recent months.
Source: capital.bg
