Agriculture and Food Minister Nihat Kabil said on January 17 that dairy subsidies would be paid earlier than previously announced and back-dated, mediapool.bg said.

The announcement came only a few days after State Agriculture Fund (SAF) announced that subsidies would be paid beginning in March.

Kabil said that the budget plan for SAF contained 45 million leva in subsidies for agriculture, which would go to support stock-farming during the touch winter season.

Kabil said that sources for the funding would be found later, saying "I accepted the risk that all the resources which the SAF currently has available, and this is three times more than it was over the past two years, would be used. Right now there is this urgent need for support in cattle and sheep-breeding and we need to minimise losses."
If necessary, the Finance Ministry would help in finding sources for the funding, mediapool.bg quoted Kabil as saying.

Kabil said he hoped these measures would be enough to "make it through this tough winter."