Novinite

Greece’s Tobacco Plant Open Doors in Bulgaria’s Sandanski

Bulgaria’s Economy Minister Ttaicho Traikov and Greece’s Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos opened Saturday a new tobacco processing plant in the Bulgarian town of Sandanski.

About EUR 9,5 M have been invested in the new plant of the Greek Leaf Tobacco company and it will provide jobs for 600 people.

The new facility will be connected to the central production hall of the company in Policastro, Greece.

The plant in Sandanski, which has a production capacity of 4 to 6 tons per hour, will conduct a pre-treatment of Bulgarian and Greek tobacco.

About EUR 4,5 M have been invested in the first Leaf Tobacco plant in Sandanski, which opened doors in 1996.

“Pangalos and I established that the region in South Bulgaria and North Greece is actually becoming a mutual economic area,” Traikov said.

He has explained that the plant will process Greek tobacco, as well as Bulgarian. He noted that this would help increase the sales of Bulgarian tobacco.

“The buyers will offer competitive price and the Bulgarian producers will sell to those who offer the better price,” Traikov said.

Panaglos also said that tobacco is an important product not only for the region, but for Greece as well.

“I believe the production has to be internationalized. For many years we lived separately for different reasons and our nations were not to blame,” he said.

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Novinite

Disgruntled Bulgarian Tobacco Growers Clash with Police

Bulgarian tobacco growers are protesting against the State failing to buy up the tobacco and the low purchase prices.
Several hundred of protesting Bulgarian tobacco growers have blocked the E-80 international road near the southern city of Harmanli.

The blockade was staged at 10 am Saturday morning, but the tobacco growers were pushed by force by the police to a nearby parking lot. The demonstrators threaten to make a new attempt to block the thoroughfare.

The protest is against the State failing to buy up the tobacco and the low purchase prices.

Organizers insist the rallies are not politically motivated and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) has nothing to do with them. They say the Agriculture Ministry is clueless about the problems in the sector and condemns hundreds of thousands of Bulgarian families to poverty.

Tobacco growers from the municipalities of Gotse Delchev, Garmen and Satovcha, are also protesting Saturday.

"
We demand the enforcement of the referent period promised to us by the State. If those in power want an alternative to tobacco they must tell us we should grow vegetables and then give guarantees this production will be purchased. But to just say – tobacco has no future;
its growing is dead, so you can die too – this is unacceptable,"
one of the organizer is quoted saying by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).

The demonstrators threaten to continue their protest Sunday and warn the rallies can turn into civil unrest.

Novinite

Bulgarian Tobacco Growers Fulfill Protest Warning

Bulgarian tobacco growers threaten to block the border with Greece in sign of protest.
About one thousand tobacco growers gathered in the village of Hadzhidimovo, near the southern town of Gotse Delchev Saturday, to protest against the low buy-up prices for their production.

The demonstrators are headed to the Ilinden cross border point with Greece with the intentions to stage a blockade, the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reports.

The tobacco growers demand that the State adheres to the referent period it signed with them, without basing payments on the conditions tied with budget 2011. They say the buy-up price now is extremely low – BGN 4 per kg on average, and asked the cabinet to interfere in the process to bring this price up to BGN 8 per kg, the minimum need for them to recuperate investments and have funds left for the new crop.

For decades, Bulgarian tobacco regions, populated mostly by Bulgarian Muslims, have produced only tobacco and nothing else, leaving the farmers stranded with no alternative. For this reason they are asking the Agriculture Ministry to set conditions for growing vegetables and guarantee their sales.

The Gotse Delchev tobacco growers are scheduled to meet Monday with Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, and Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov.

Organizers insist the rallies are not politically motivated and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) has nothing to do with them.

Meanwhile, Nedzhim Ali, a DPS Member of the Parliament, announced his colleagues are anticipating the Monday decision about paying subsidies to tobacco growers, adding as early as the passing of budget 2011, they have warned about looming large-scale protests.

Ali further vowed the party will insist on a cabinet decree about the amount to be paid to tobacco growers with the cap being BGN 143 M.

Novinite

Bulgaria to Start Privatization of State Tobacco Giant in February

Bulgaria's state cigarette producer Bulgartabac Holding will be declared for privatization in February 2011, according to the Economy Ministry.

Bulgartabac, whose state management has been questionable in the recent years, will be put on the privatization table after its privatization has been mulled for years.

Last week Finance Minister Simeon Djankov reiterated earlier announcements that Bulgaria's government is determined to go ahead with the planned sale of the country's tobacco company, the biggest military plant and the minority stakes in electricity distributors.

The sale of Bulgartabac Holding AD, Sopot-based Vazovski Mashinostroitelni Zavodi or VMZ, and the minority stakes in the electricity distributors have been said to be a must-do task in 2011 due to the sorry performance of the state-owned companies.

The privatization method – i.e. whether Bulgartabac will be sold through a tender, an auction, or on the Sofia Stock Exchange – will be decided in the coming weeks. It will be proposed by Citibank, the consultant preparing the sale of the state company.

The Economy Ministry, as cited by the Dnevnik daily, said Citibank has made preliminary inquiries with about 100 potential strategic and financial investors from around the world with respect to Bulgartabac's privatization in order to make sure that all "
serious"
investors that are not aware of the sale of the Bulgarian cigarette company.

According to the Ministry, there is a sufficient number of companies interested in the privatization of Bulgartabac because it is an attractive asset even in a time of crisis. The method of privatization will be selected based on the number of interested bidders.

The Economy Ministry said it wants to find a buyer for Bulgartabac by the summer of 2011.

In spite of declarations in April 2010 that Bulgaria's Privatization Agency hoped to complete the sale of state-owned cigarette monopoly Bulgartabac in 2010, no such deal went through by the end of December 2010.

The consultant for the Bulgartabac sale, Citigroup Global Markets Ltd, was picked by the Bulgarian government in February 2010.

Two of the less profitable plants of Bulgartabac holding – in the cities of Plovdiv and Stara Zagora – were sold in 2009 through the Sofia Stock Exchange – for BGN 31 M and BGN 18 M respectively;
the holding still owns the two larger and more consolidated factories in Sofia and Blagoevgrad as well as a number of commercial brands.