Representatives of the meat and milk processing industries said they were shocked at the news that companies with a spotless reputation have turned up on the new list of Sapard-funding violators.

At an emergency media conference, they estimated that if they would be ordered to repay the 65 million leva in subsidies with interest, they would have to pay at least 140 million leva in total.

The business said that if compliant companies would be forced to pay back subsidies, only meat importers and illegal companies would be left on the market.

Kostadin Chorbadjiiski, chairman of the Bulgarian meat processors’ association, said the criteria to determine that prices of purchased equipment had been inflated were not transparent. He shared the view of his colleagues that a large portion of the requirements for the Sapard-backed projects had been set post-factum and did not exist at the time when project applications were processed by the administration.

Companies claim that many of the problems were sparked by the incompetence of local agriculture authorities and accused officials of failing to protect the interests of Bulgarian producers at meetings in Brussels.

At the same time, entrepreneurs said they have had first-hand experience with double standards in granting approval for projects at the start of the programme, when the commissions included industry representatives.

"I have served on commissions as a representative of the association and was surprised that projects submitted long before by my colleagues were put on the back-burner while others were fast-tracked," Kiril Vatev, owner of meat company Tandem which has not applied for financing under the programme, said. He said the Sapard procedures were "a trap for producers".

The association pointed out that despite numerous tip-offs, the administration had not checked a single company committing fraud.