A regular meeting of the Business Council in the Agro - Food Industry was held

On 11.03.2023 at 11:00 a.m. in the town of. The regular meeting of the Business Council in the Agri-Food Sector in the border regions of Blagoevgrad, Haskovo, Kardzhali and Smolyan was held on 11.03.2015 in Smolyan.

There were five representatives of the sector from the border regions of Haskovo, Kardzhali, Blagoevgrad and Smolyan. The meeting room was technically equipped with multimedia, laptop, printer, as well as information boards, banner and presentation materials according to the requirements of the Communication and Publicity Manual of the Interreg V/A Greece-Bulgaria 2014-2020 Programme. In addition, disinfectants as well as water, coffee and tea were provided to secure the coffee break of the event.

The moderator of the event welcomed all attendees and kicked off the event by making a brief presentation of the Rules of Procedure of the BS in the Agro - Food Sector.

The main topic of the free discussion was the problems that potato growers have had in recent years. Because of global warming and climate change, potatoes have been getting sick for the last few years. As potato production is one of the few profitable economic activities and also has a tradition in the region, the trend is extremely worrying.

A member of the council expressed his opinion that the state needed to take more serious action to support and protect the sector, which is of great importance to the region.

Another problem that worries farmers is the marketing of production. Those present raised the issue of farmers' markets where producers can directly present their produce. Together with the local authorities, they could work to create the conditions for regulating the markets and reaping the benefits from them, both for the producers themselves and for the development of the local economy.

The Council decided, together with the project management team, to put forward their ideas to local authority representatives.