Dairy producers threatened with new protests if the government would not take measures to increase financial support for dairy farmers, the producers said in two statements sent out on January 13.

In the first statement, dairy producers demanded that proposals put forward by Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil be accepted unconditionally, mediapool.bg said.

The proposal put forward by Kabil included 25 million leva in financial support for dairy agriculture.

Later in the day, a second statement was sent out by producers in Stara Zagora, Plovdiv, Veliko Turnovo, Yambol, Vratsa, Gabrovo, Pleven and Haskovo, demanding ten times more, 250 million leva in financial support for the industry.

The 25 million leva proposed by Kabil was absolutely insufficient, the chairperson of the association of dairy producers in Stara Zagora, Tachno Kolev said.

Dairy producers claimed that 250 to 300 million leva would be needed in subside to feed animals during the winter because of bad harvests and in subsidy for milk producers for the year. The producers said they have been forgotten when the 1.3 billion leva budget surplus was distributed in late 2007.

In the first statement sent out on January 13, dairy producers said that if additional measures were not taken, dairy cattle-breeding would cease to exist in Bulgaria, claiming it would lead to the end of local milk production.

Dairy producers in Stara Zagora, Plovdiv, Veliko Turnovo, Yambol, Vratsa, Gabrovo, Pleven and Haskovo, who sent out the second statement, said they wanted to distance themselves from the Association of Dairy-producers headed by Plamen Penchev and from the National Milk Board with chairperson Dimitar Zorov. The two organisations were said to only be concerned with "escalation of the political pressure and have no interest in solving the severe problems faced by dairy cattle-breeders," mediapool.bg quoted the statement as saying.