Balgarianovinite.com The Government’s Methodology for Determining the Fair Value of Staple Foods will cost businesses at least over EUR 1.5 million and have very questionable results, Modern Trade Association Executive Director Nikolay Valkanov told BTA on Monday. He was commenting on the draft methodology that the Ministry of Economy, Investments and Industry discussed with interested parties earlier in the day.
The draft was prepared following the latest amendments to the Consumer Protection Act, which introduced the concept of “fair value” and provided a legal basis for adopting a uniform approach to determining it. Under the draft, prices of certain staple consumer goods that deviate by more than 10% from the so-called fair value would be subject to monitoring.
According to the Modern Trade Association, the major risk – along with the economic distortions that accompany any such intervention – is that consumers will be misled by the name of the country. “At this stage, during discussions at the Economy Ministry, it became clear that the formula is flawed; wholesale and import prices can be misleading, as confirmed by the farmers themselves, as well as by an interview with Minister Abrovski; French cost standards have nothing in common with Bulgarian ones and cannot be automatically applied here; some of the products under review have no comparable equivalents at all, even in neighboring countries,” said Valkanov. He cited type 500 flour as an example, noting that the information came from the Union of Bulgarian Millers.
According to him, the authors of the methodology claim it is not regulatory in nature, but this cannot be true given the mechanism provided for disseminating the information. “The authors cannot answer a simple question: why do the terms ‘monitoring’ and ‘violation’ appear in the text of the methodology when, by law, the so-called fair value is intended to be purely indicative,” he argued.
Valkanov said that, as consumer organizations themselves have noted, there are already numerous platforms on the market that use the information submitted by large retail chains to the Consumer Protection Commission to develop apps with much higher added value for shoppers than a government website could ever provide – and at no cost to the affected economic operators.
“Do you think the Government can determine a fair price per kilogram of tomatoes, and if so, how? Which tomatoes? How will the Government rank imported tomatoes from Poland, the Roma, Bivolsko Sartse or Rozova Magiya varieties on its scale of fairness?” asked Valkanov.
According to him, the business community will bear the cost of any such ill-considered decision by the Government, and this will inevitably be passed on to consumers in the final prices.
The Association will issue a detailed statement on the methodology within the timeframe set for public discussion.
Large Supermarket Chains: Cabinet’s Fair Value Methodology to Cost Businesses over EUR 1.5 Mln, Results Questionable 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-08-24 16:29:00
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БЪЛГАРИЯ НОВИНИТЕ – ИНФОРМАЦИОННА АГЕНЦИЯ 2009-2026 2026-08-24 16:29:00