The National Assembly voted to close the National Grain Service

The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency will now be responsible for the control and quality of grain in the country.

Last week, the Parliament approved at first reading the closure of the National Grain Service and the transfer of its powers under the control of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency. A consequence of this decision will also be the release of grain warehouses from the obligation to be licensed. In its current form and name, the service has existed since 2001, when it expanded its activities in accordance with market and conjunctural requirements. Its work covers a wide range of responsibilities: participation in the intervention purchase of grain according to the responsibilities delegated to it by the State Fund "Agriculture" - Payment Agency; it prepares and disseminates to participants in the grain sector current information on the state and trends of the grain market in the country, the region and the European Union, the quality of the harvest and the available grain stocks; it controls the activity of licensed public grain warehouses, registered granaries and declared other grain storage facilities for compliance with the law and the secondary legislation for its implementation; it works jointly and exchanges information with branch organizations from the grain sector on problems in the branch and their resolution, through initiatives and activities to assist participants in the sector; it annually performs representative quality assessment of the harvested crop of wheat, barley, sunflower and corn and prepares reports on the results of the quality assessment.

The main motive of the government is that, according to our EU membership, the market should be freed from excessive regulations, which become an obstacle for grain producers, traders and storers. The reduction of unjustified licensing and registration regimes will allow for the optimization of administrative structures and will ease the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture.