The Ministry of Agriculture will not encourage slaughterhouses to buy Bulgarian lambs this year

Published Mar 30, 2023

Tridge summary

The Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture's practice of incentivizing slaughterhouses to purchase Bulgarian lambs before Easter, which had cost the state budget under BGN 1 million, will not be continued this year. This could result in Bulgarian slaughterhouses purchasing cheaper lambs from Romania and North Macedonia, as the purchase price of live Bulgarian lambs has increased to around BGN 9-9.50/kg, compared to BGN 6.50-7/kg for Macedonian lambs. The National Sheep and Goat Breeding Association (NOKA) had anticipated that the state aid would deter imports, but it remains to be seen whether control-sanitary measures against imports will favor Bulgarian livestock breeders.

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Original content

For three years in a row, the Ministry of Agriculture encouraged slaughterhouses to buy Bulgarian lambs before Easter. This good practice, which cost the state budget less than BGN 1 million, will not be implemented this year, announced Simeon Karakolev, co-chairman of the National Sheep and Goat Breeding Association (NOKA). Confirmation of this is the silence of the Ministry of Agriculture. For the first time, state aid for slaughterhouses was introduced in the spring of 2020. The incentive for them then was BGN 7 per lamb, provided that the animals were purchased at a price no lower than BGN 5 per kilogram of live weight. In the following years, the minimum purchase price increased, along with the state aid. Last year, slaughterhouses received BGN 10 for a lamb purchased for a minimum of BGN 7.50/kg. Two weeks ago, Simeon Karakolev warned that Macedonian lambs would enter our country for BGN 6.50-7/kg. At the same time, the purchase price of live Bulgarian lambs appears to be ...

Source: Agroplovdiv