What was achieved with the boycott of large retail stores and how will the protest continue… Velizar Enchev, former ambassador to Croatia, speaks to FAKTI.
- Mr. Enchev, you are part of the Initiative for the Boycott of Food Chains. In the end, what was the effect?
- The first boycott on February 13 was the most successful. According to official data from the National Revenue Agency, the turnover of large retail chains fell by nearly 30 percent, which is equivalent to 8 million leva less compared to the previous day. This serious decline forced the government to promise legislative changes to limit the markups of resellers and traders. And this happened 48 hours after the boycott, which showed that the authorities are aware of the seriousness of the problem. And there is a problem directly affecting millions of Bulgarians in the poorest country in the EU, who pay excessively high prices for basic food products.
The success is that we awakened civil society and showed it that without civil resistance it is impossible to oppose the price terror of retail chains.
- What conclusions do you draw from the fact that after the first boycott, the energy of the boycotters decreased?
- Unfortunately, after the first successful boycott, consumers took less part in the subsequent boycotts of the chains, even the stores increased their turnover. Many citizens preferred the promotions of the chains on Thursdays and thus boycotted the boycott, which is a sad Bulgarian phenomenon. This lack of social empathy for self-interest is unique, but in the bad sense of the word.
I will give you a somewhat comical example. During the boycotts, a large village in Vidin called the Initiative Committee to ask if there would be a boycott the following Thursday. Since every Thursday a large group of enterprising villagers ordered a minibus to shop in large quantities in Vidin because of the promotions of the chains...
I told them that they were confusing the concepts, that the boycott was not a promotion, that the chains were trying to buy them cheaply, that by boycotting in this absurd way, they were actually working against their own interests...
But their logic was unshakable: “Well, when else, if not now, will we be able to shop cheaply?“ This behavior is a worrying symptom of a breach in national psychology.
- You are talking about a discriminatory attitude towards Bulgarian consumers. What does it express?
- The same food product, from the same brand, with the same label, in chains in Germany and Austria is almost twice as expensive as the price of the same product in the Bulgarian branches of these chains. What more convincing example of discrimination! And let the lawyers of foreign chains not sing us lullabies about the higher transportation costs when delivering food to Bulgaria. Transportation from Germany to Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and neighboring Romania also has costs, but in these branches of the German chain the prices of the goods in question are also lower, if we compare them with Bulgaria.
- A week ago, the Initiative Committee gave a press conference at which we expressed dissatisfaction with the government's inaction. What do you mean?
- The Minister of Agriculture promised to draft a Law on the Agri-Food Chain, which would set a ceiling on mark-ups, regulate the behavior of resellers, and thus reduce prices in stores by 20 percent. So far, Minister Tahov has neither presented the Law on the Agri-Food Chain for public discussion, nor has he submitted it to parliament for consideration, along with the bill on the maximum mark-ups, submitted by Maya Manolova back in January of this year. Since it is obvious that the law is in the freezer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, we are considering further actions, including a boycott. But this time we will do it together with Bulgarian food producers, because we have their full support.
- During the Easter holidays, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food announced the “Easter Basket” campaign, which was a good social measure...
- The Minister of Agriculture’s “Easter Basket” campaign crashed. Retail chains, from the position of their economic power, mocked the Ministry of Agriculture and boycotted the minister’s call. The two largest chains have an annual turnover of nearly 7 billion leva. These are powerful economic entities. But is there an economic entity in a country that is stronger than the government and the National Assembly?
Moreover, around Easter, the prices of the main food products for the festive table rose by more than 15% – I’m talking about lamb, kozunats, confectionery.
Large retail chains are no less powerful in other European countries, but the authorities there are taking measures to protect their citizens from rising prices for basic food products
– whether through a ceiling on mark-ups, a ceiling on food prices, a regulation of the profit of major entities in the food industry compared to 2021, as is the case with Greece, or mandatory consumer baskets for chains... It is good to know that entering the eurozone without legislation to limit the prices of basic food products will lead to an explosion of prices after January 1, 2026. This happened in the Croatian retail network, hours after the adoption of the euro, which required urgent action by the Croatian government to curb the price shock. Therefore, I will repeat: if the inaction of the government and parliament continues, if the Agri-Food Chain Law and the Law on Marginal Surcharges will remain in a drawer, we will take active action for civil pressure.