Food prices: No 100% markup

“Prices in the store have long crossed the line of funny. It was funny that “Koshnitsa s griza“ would lower prices“, former Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev told BNT.

He also commented on the political dispute surrounding the extraordinary parliamentary session on “Petrich Escobar“. According to him, the lack of enough opposition deputies was cited as the reason for the session not taking place, but according to him, the main question is where were 131 ruling party deputies. Georgiev stressed that it is the ruling majority that is responsible for ensuring a quorum.

A retail chain rejected allegations of markups over 100%

The CEO of a large retail chain, Milena Dragiyska, stated that not a single product in the company is sold with a markup of over 100%, as was indicated in public comments by Maya Manolova.

„Categorically not a single product in our chain has such a markup as Maya Manolova is talking about. For every 100 euros of turnover, we earn between 2 and 5 euros, because our business on a global scale is low-margin“, said Dragiyska.

She pointed out that over 300 Bulgarian manufacturers supply products to the chain. According to her, the price dispute cannot be resolved only with inspections and sanctions, because it is based on structural problems in agriculture and insufficient domestic production.

„Imagine your child has to do his math homework, but he doesn't have a compass, a notebook with small squares, a sharpened pencil and probably his lamp is off, but you scold him for not doing his homework, and he doesn't have the basic things“, said Dragijska.

According to business, the problem lies in production

Dragijska said that ensuring food supply would be most sustainable if producers from nearby villages and towns were relied on. She gave Poland, France and Germany as examples.

„We welcome checking the entire supply chain. The fundamental problem is that there are no competitive conditions, sufficient domestic production to cover domestic consumption and not have to import from abroad. We need to solve this. Until this is solved, 2,000 inspections per day are carried out and sanctions are imposed on them, the problem will remain“, she said.

Thus, within the same public dispute, two different theses were put forward: that prices in stores have reached unacceptable levels and that a lasting solution requires changes in production, competition and the supply chain.