Around 100 fruit producers from Bulgaria's Sliven region blocked a key road near the Rechitsa market in protest against low purchase prices, rising production costs and a lack of markets for their peaches and plums. The farmers briefly halted traffic on the old road linking Sliven with Nova Zagora and Stara Zagora, calling for urgent state intervention to prevent the sector from collapsing.
The producers said this year's peach harvest is good, but the strong production has become a problem because there are not enough buyers. With purchase prices below their costs, some farmers have been forced to leave or throw away tons of ripe fruit.
For industrial peaches used for compote, producers receive about 37 euro cents per kilogram, a level they say has remained virtually unchanged for around 15 years. Dessert peaches are purchased for roughly 50 to 80 euro cents per kilogram. At the same time, farmers said peaches can sell for around 2 to 2.50 euros per kilogram in stores in Sofia and Burgas, creating a price difference of more than 300% between farm-gate and retail prices.
"The funds we invest are more than what we will receive," one producer said, describing the situation facing growers.
