Farmers in Bulgaria have set up temporary blockades on motorways and access roads to borders with Romania and Greece to protest lifting the EU import ban on Ukrainian grains, media reports said on Monday.
They said on Friday, the European Commission had decided to end import restrictions on grains from Ukraine.
They said on Thursday the Bulgarian parliament voted to lift the import ban, parting ways with Poland, Hungary and Slovakia who said they would keep it in place.
Controls on Ukrainian grain allowed eastern EU members, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania to limit trade in products such as wheat, maize, rapeseed or sunflowers from Ukraine on their markets.
Agricultural sector representatives in Bulgaria set up road blocks to protest against the decision to let the ban expire.
The farmers feared competition from cheaper imports.
Demonstrators said they planned to travel to the capital Sofia with their agricultural machinery on Tuesday to continue their action.
They were demanding that Bulgaria continued the controls on Ukrainian grain products as well as a ban on imports of cooking oil, fruit and vegetables, dairy products, meat, livestock and honey from Ukraine.
Bulgarian Prime Minister, Nikolai Denkov, however, said on Sunday, in reference to the protests, that he would not negotiate with terrorists.
Last week’s lifting of the ban ahead of the European Commission came from the pro-Western majority in parliament, which secured 124 out of 240 votes, with eight abstentions according to the BTA news agency.
