Бизнес

Plamen Popov is the owner of the company "PLAP", the main distributor of the Greek-Italian company "Irra Fruit" for our region. He has been selling fruits and vegetables for years. Here are what he thinks are now the biggest problems in this industry:
"I started working at the Market in Velingrad on January 28, 1992 after I was laid off from the factory. I had come back from Comey, I had collected some money, but when they were finished, I began to wonder what to do. A friend of mine from Plovdiv oriented me because there was no merchandise back then, you had to go around looking for it. In the morning I would drive by the bus station, pick up 4 people at the price of the bus and go to Sofia. If I find merchandise, I put it on the car and go home. If I don't, I'll go back to the bus station to cover my expenses. When Bulgarcvet closed in Velingrad, I was able to develop a larger activity.
The strongest years were 1994-98. Then because of inflation people looked to buy quickly, because you didn't know tomorrow with this money if they would be able to buy the same. Then I would sell the oranges for 12 leva, and the next day I would buy them for 28 leva. Whoever had money was looking to buy food. It's a hell of a job right now. Almost all holiday homes are empty or have few people, everywhere budgets are limited, almost everyone has a problem with payments. It's rare for those who can pay immediately, let alone cashed goods! One of our biggest problems is that the people of Veligrad have no money. When there are outsiders in the city, it immediately feels.
The companies that operate in the Market are everywhere under pressure with taxes. The slightest mistake as not to knock immediately on the cash register or not to have reported the turnover from the previous day and immediately a fine, which is from 200 to 1000 levs. Quite another are the conditions for the so-called "producers" who usually sell in the back row of the Market. All these "producers" at 6 o'clock every morning are at the vegetable exchange - if they want, law enforcement can see them and sanction them. One can only wonder how they take notes about producers from Pazardzhik and why there is not a single punished clerk for issuing such documents. How do you see gypsies selling 7-8 types of grapes, including imported and having a document that they are producers?!
At the Market in Velingrad 95% are resellers-traders, only 5% are producers. Buyers posing as "producers" sold around Easter "Bulgarian" tomatoes at 2.50 leva, and Turkish at 1.70 leva. One of them explained the price difference so: "If I let them go cheaper, no one will buy them for me, and so I sell them like Bulgarian! Customers being suckers, buy!".
The truth is that Bulgarian tomatoes will not come out until the end of the month. Now Bulgarian tomatoes offer only large greenhouses, but with them the quantities and conditions are such that few charge. Turkish tomatoes are sold exclusively on the exchange. Buyers can recognize them easily: by cutting in the middle, the Turkish tomato is divided into three layers, and in the middle of the bark there is a white stripe. Bulgarian tomato, if there is such a strip, it is light green. The private cucumber from producers is also evident - it is smooth, slightly pointed at the front and shorter. An apple from Poland is also sold on the Market as a "Bulgarian Karastoyanka".
The only way to solve this problem of unfair competition is for everyone in the Market to have cash registers - both merchants and those posing as manufacturers. Plus more efficient control by the IRS, which should not only monitor compliance with the law "black and white", but also look at the documents of the "producers". Can't sell all spring and summer this guy - when does he produce?! It also came to the paradox last year that a "manufacturer" would hire a worker to sell his production. However, such tax collectors do not catch them.
I also work with manufacturers, but in a different way. To people who have land but do not have the opportunity to farm it, I help financially to start and then buy their produce at prices close to market. In my opinion, this is how the producer should be encouraged, because it is clear that only agriculture in Bulgaria cannot be won for now."
Recorded by: Elena Baeva