Are Bulgarian producers more special?

Representatives of the "Made in Bulgaria" union accuse (some) of the retail chains in the country of monopoly and unfair practices aimed at extracting maximum profit and "eating" the profits of local producers.

Ivan Georgiev | Stoyan Panchev

But they do not provide any concrete arguments in defense of their thesis beyond citing selected data on the country's foreign trade; indicating a non-Bulgarian manufacturer of several products that are supposed to have had "traditional Bulgarian origin" in the past; inside information about "unfairly high discounts" that the chains sought from Bulgarian manufacturers, and again mystical information about the share of Bulgarian products in the local market.

Protectionist rhetoric intensified around the elections, with cries for the protection of Bulgarian production, which was being unfairly crushed by retail chains and whatnot, in a rather demagogic-conspiratorial style, being part of the campaign tactics of some political parties.

Production is an important thing, without it there is no wealth and no consumption. But from an economic point of view, the division "Bulgarian-non-Bulgarian" makes no sense beyond the difference in production costs and the specific preferences of consumers. As Yordan Mateev, executive director of the Association for Modern Trade, emphasized in his participation in a segment of This Morning on bTV on Tuesday morning - retail chains (and their policies) reflect consumer preferences. They do not exist in a vacuum, where they can determine and impose on the manufacturer at what price to sell or on the consumer at what price to buy. He also added that if a manufacturer is experiencing difficulty in marketing its goods, it is easiest to blame the one from whom it expects to sell it to it. But in fact, if we have a market economy and we want things to happen in a market-based manner, we must look at the process of competition in the market - which goods of which manufacturer should be on display and at what price and quality to be sold ultimately depends on the decisions of the people who buy them.

There is a possibility that this rhetoric will increase until the elections, used by "nationalists" and other opportunists with political ambitions. There has long been a sentiment that the consumer has too much choice and unpatriotically chooses to buy goods that he likes - whether because of price, quality or something else. In this way, "Bulgarian" production suffers, which for some reason must be more important than "Bulgarian" consumption or the work done by people in industries that populist and lobby groups do not pay serious attention to. Ultimately, anyone who wants to stimulate Bulgarian production can do so by buying from it themselves or convincing other people of its qualities.

We cannot speak of a monopoly of the several large chains, since their market share is about 1/3 of the market. Moreover, there are no legal obstacles that would contribute to the emergence of such a monopoly. In fact, a simple walk through markets and retail outlets should convince us that things are not quite right with the claims of this group of Bulgarian manufacturers – we can shop from a variety of outlets, with the more innovative manufacturers already opening their own company stores. In conclusion – if a trading partner does not offer suitable conditions, you simply do not work with him, you do not make the state twist his hands.

Something else on the topic: https://ekipbg.com/2012/06/10/%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%89%D0%BE-%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%BA-%D1%81-%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B8-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B7%D1%8A%D0%BC/

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