Bulgarian farmers will join the pan-European protest today in Strasbourg against the large-scale deal for duty-free trade with the Mercosur countries in Latin America.
Several of our organizations, such as the Association of Grain Producers, the Farmers' Union, and the United Livestock Breeders, have declared themselves against the trade agreement.
The fears are that it will lead to the import of cheap agricultural products into Europe, which will undercut local production.
Evgeni Haramliyski has been producing and exporting wines for international markets, mainly European, for over 30 years.
30% of the production is for export, the rest for the domestic market.
He believes that duty-free imports of wine, mainly from Argentina, will flood the European market.
Evgeniy Haramliyski, wine producer and trader: It certainly poses a threat to the entry of extremely cheap Argentine wines into Europe, which will accordingly threaten our exports. Trade between Bulgaria and the Mercosur countries in terms of wine is extremely weak, so I do not think this is any threat to our market at the moment. But it threatens our exports to Europe.
According to the chairman of the grain producers' chamber, who will participate in the protest tomorrow, the agreement with Mercosur is not about free trade, but about unfair competition.
Ilya Prodanov, chairman of the National Association of Grain Producers:
Because European producers produce our products at a completely different cost price, due to completely different requirements - both environmental, administrative, social and working conditions. Working conditions in Europe, you know, are very high, environmental requirements in Europe are very high, the plant protection products that we are allowed to use are very limited.
The concerns of grain producers are that not only cheap wheat, corn and soybeans, but also other related products such as chicken, beef will flood the European markets.
The Mercosur agreement is about to be voted on by the European Parliament, and then by the parliaments of the respective countries.