Growers Protest Over Non-Payment of Subsidies

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 06/17/2010

Tobacco growers from the Bulgarian regions of Silistra, Plovdiv and Blagoevgrad were due to begin today a series of mass protests over unpaid subsidies, according to a Novinite story. The government had agreed to pay Bulgarian growers BGN116 million in respect of their 2009-crop tobaccos but organizers of the protests say the Ministry of Agriculture failed to make the payments by March, when they were due, and that the new deadline of June 23 might not be met because the revised budget will not have been approved by then. The situation was not helped by a statement by the Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, who said the budget would not need to be updated if the state stopped giving money to tobacco producers. The organizers say the rallies will be peaceful, with 7,000-10,000 people expected to take part in the Danube town of Dulovo, 5,000 in the southern town of Gotse Delchev, and about 3,000 in the southern town of Parvomay. Many of the tobacco growers have threatened to go on hunger strike. Enditem