Stock-breeders will receive a double year-round state subsidy if they deliver quality milk, according to an agreement between the Agriculture and Food Minister Nihat Kabil and representatives of the National Milk Board and National Association of Milk Producers, Dnevnik daily reported on March 10.

The subsidy will be of 0.2 leva for a litre of cow and goat’s milk and of 0.25 leva per litre of sheep and buffalo’s milk. Until now, stock-breeders received subsidies only for several months every year.

According to the agreement, the farmers could count on permanent subsidy for milk and funding under the de minimis scheme to buy fodder. The scheme allows the registered agricultural producers to receive subsidies of 15 000 leva. The fund also allocates grants of 300 leva per cow, 320 leva per she-buffalo, 40 leva per sheep and 20 leva per goat.

The agreement abolishes the 150 000 leva ceiling on subsidies from the State Fund for Agriculture. According to farmers, inflation had made this threshold a serious hindrance for them.

It is unclear where the funding will come from, however, as the agriculture ministry budget has only 45 million leva allocated for stock-breeding, Dnevnik said. The money would be enough for only three or four months of subsidies. For year-round subsidies the ministry would need nearly 70 million leva.

The agriculture ministry did not say whether the European Commission would allow the additional state funding. In the beginning of 2008, dairy producers launched a series of protests, demanding bigger subsidies. The agriculture ministry then said that it could not provide bigger subsidies, because their amount had been co-ordinated with the EC.