Bulgarian commercial attaches to join drive for lower food prices

Economy and Industry Minister Nikola Stoyanov has ordered Bulgarian commercial attaches to collect data on the prices of more than 20 food staples, including flour, cooking oil, rice, beans, sugar, milk and yogurt, butter, white and yellow cheese, eggs and meat. The information will be updated every week to help analyse product pricing from producer to customer, the Economy Ministry said on Tuesday.

The Bulgarian trade representatives will monitor prices in both major retail chains and smaller outlets in seven European countries - Germany, Austria, France, Romania, Greece, Czechia and Croatia. The data will be processed and compared with prices in Bulgaria and all the information will be available to the public.

In this way Bulgarians will have official data on the current prices in their country compared with other countries in Europe.

This step was prompted by a growing number of reports that food products in Bulgaria are sold at inflated prices. The aim is to keep consumers informed and limit unfair trade practices and overpricing.