The general conclusion of consumer and producer associations in the EU is that food prices are rising, farmers are getting less and less money for their products, and profits are increasingly going into the coffers of large processors and supermarket chains.
Food prices are unreasonably rising in the European Union and especially in the Balkans, despite a wave of supermarket boycotts, so the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture has decided to establish a retail chain of stores called "Shops for the People", which will have a maximum margin of 10 percent and sell mostly Bulgarian products.
The Bulgarian government has provided around five million eira in seed capital for around 1.500 "Shops for the People" that will be opened mostly in the poorest and agricultural areas.
There, explained Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Georgi Tahov, inflation hits the population hardest, who have less and less money to spend on food.
The goal is to deliver primarily domestic food and agricultural products to consumers as directly as possible, without large intermediaries.
Media in the EU and the Balkans have reported assessments by consumer and producer associations that rising food prices are significantly reducing the salaries and incomes of citizens not only in the Western Balkans, but also in Bulgaria, Greece and Croatia.
The general conclusion of consumer and producer associations in the EU is that food prices are rising, farmers are getting less and less money for their products, and profits are increasingly going into the coffers of large processors and supermarket chains.
And within the EU itself, for example, citizens of Belgium - where food prices have risen sharply in the last few years - in border areas purchase almost all their necessities and food in France and Germany.
Everyone in the Balkans knows very well that many products are cheaper in neighboring countries, and food and many other things are significantly more affordable not only for citizens of Serbia, but also Slovenia and especially Croatia in Trieste and its surroundings, where supermarkets are full of Slovenian and Croatian customers every day.
The French government recently summoned the directors of several of the largest grocery store chains in France and Germany and demanded an explanation for serious findings that they had agreed on a price fixing cartel for food products, which is strictly prohibited by law, at a secret meeting in a city in Germany.
Representatives of German farmers and some members of the European Parliament have just published on the Project Syndicate portal the fact that just four large retail chains in Germany control 85 percent of the food market.
"There is a very high concentration," as it was stated, in the agricultural product processing sector.
The German Monopolies Commission warned late last year that "high market concentration is seriously affecting both food producers and consumers."
The Serbian government also announced last fall that it was preparing serious fines for several food store chains due to serious suspicion that they had agreed to raise food prices and maintain unreasonably high margins.
But since then there has been no news as to whether the competent ministry and inspectorates have taken any action, even though citizens themselves have boycotted large supermarket chains on several occasions.
Representatives of agricultural associations in the EU and members of the European Parliament made it clear in a statement that "if Europe wants to feed itself in the future, it must make agriculture economically and environmentally sustainable... and not through subsidies, but by establishing fair market conditions and firmly sustainable standards."
They point out that one of the steps should be what the German government has taken, which is to make food procurement and sales contracts tripartite, directly between farmers, processors and sales chains, "so that it is known exactly what the market and consumer-justified margins are."
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