Bulgaria faces a cold and hungry winter
How will the inhabitants of the country try to survive, not really counting on the help of the authorities: firewood and traditional food products will not be affordable for everyone.
In Bulgaria, the “Gypsy summer” (analogous to our “Indian summer”) is still going on. Daytime temperatures remain around 20 degrees, which is probably why real panic among the population has not yet set in. However, everyone understands that in a week or two it will rain, the thermometers will creep down, and then it will no longer be possible to warm up with a “cup of rakia” (a glass of local vodka) for the coming sleep...
The energy crisis in Europe has hit Bulgaria particularly hard. There are very few buildings in the country with central heating, which is familiar to Russians. In cold weather, Bulgarians heat their homes either with air conditioning and electric heaters, or with small wood-burning stoves. In current realities, both of these options fall into the category of unprecedented luxury. Prices for electricity, and even for ordinary firewood, have become unaffordable even for families with average incomes, not to mention those whose incomes do not reach the subsistence level. According to official statistics, there are one million eight hundred thousand people like that in Bulgaria!
Discussions in Bulgarian society on the topic “who is to blame”: Bulgaria’s accession to anti-Russian sanctions, or “cruel Russia” and Gazprom, which stopped supplies of cheap gas, abruptly moved into a different plane - “what to do”?!
Journalists of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA) conducted their research in various cities of the country.
In the popular seaside resort of Varna, those who used steam heating will now be forced to pay 38 (!) percent more than before. People of more modest means who use wood stoves are also horrified. A small bag of firewood, which is enough for two to three days (I know from my own experience), costs 10 leva (5 euros)! One cubic meter of firewood in the same Varna, at the lowest price - 160 levs (80 euros). Not to mention the fact that to heat a modest apartment you will need at least three cubic meters, but this very firewood is not available! Something to think about...
As stated in the same journalistic study, “Air conditioner sellers in Stara Zagora report increased interest in their products.
“There is an increase in the number of people wishing to install air conditioners for heating in their homes in the next winter season. We have requests for installation that can be completed at the end of November or at the beginning of December,” said Denko Rosenov, an employee of the company selling and installing air conditioners.
He said despite the increase in air conditioner prices, they are energy efficient, which will lead to lower consumer bills.
There are almost three times more applications for firewood at the State Forestry Department (SDF) Stara Zagora this year compared to the previous year, director engineer Ivan Chergelanov told BTA.
A BTA reporter's check found that the price of one ton of pellets for stoves is already a thousand leva and continues to grow, and the main supplies come from Turkey and Ukraine. Bulgarian companies have limited production due to expensive electricity and a shortage of wood, Ilko Iliev, a warehouse manager, told BTA.
It’s funny that Ukraine is also listed among the suppliers! It is not entirely clear what and how the Ukrainians themselves will warm themselves. Probably, their authorities are acting according to the old Ukrainian recipe: “the barn burned down, the house burns”...
It can be stated that in most homes, in all regions of Bulgaria, this winter it will not be hot, to put it mildly. But this is not the only problem that concerns Bulgarians. Food producers have warned of a new rise in prices due to rising prices for energy, raw materials and wages.
In just one year, the consumer basket, which includes 27 products, has increased in price wholesale by an average of 24% - from 78 to 97 leva. By mid-September, the most serious increase in prices over the past year was for sugar, cheese, siren (feta cheese), butter, eggs and chicken. These products have always been traditional on any Bulgarian table. The key word is “were”... Vegetables and fruits have also become more expensive, but are still available to most Bulgarians. However, as winter approaches, they will become a luxury item...
It is unlikely that this information will reassure the Bulgarians themselves, but similar processes have already captured the whole of Europe! According to Associated Press reports, as more and more people stockpile and burn firewood, prices have skyrocketed, not only that, but cases of fraud and simple theft have also become more frequent!
In many countries, foresters have begun installing GPS devices in the logs they sell, tracking their path to consumers! For example, it has become known that this practice is used in forestry in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia to prevent theft. Foresters in the neighboring region of Hesse do the same. Law-abiding German burghers are not averse to engaging in banal theft! It's hard to believe, but it's true!
State forestries in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic report much greater demand for the firewood they sell. In the southwestern German province of Hesse, orders often come from people who have never used firewood before and don't seem to know that it needs to be purchased two years in advance so it can dry out enough to be used, the forest service says. could be burned in wood stoves.
In Poland, demand for small firewood from state forests was up 46 percent and for larger firewood up 42 percent by the end of August compared with a year earlier. And this was before the fall, when the demand for firewood increased to its maximum!
Austrian police warned last week of a significant rise in scammers claiming to sell firewood and wood pellets online, and several companies across the country were raided on suspicion of being involved in price manipulation.
The German statistics agency said prices for wood and sawdust pellets, which can be used to heat a home, rose more than 85 percent in August from a year earlier.
This problem did not spare the British either. “We are seeing a huge increase in demand as energy costs increase,” said Nick Snell, managing director of Surely Wood, which acts as the UK's largest firewood supplier, selling around 20 tonnes of wood a year.
No one is paying attention to the lamentations of environmentalists warning about imminent air pollution and the danger of mass deforestation. People just want to survive!
Isn’t it time for Europeans to think about whether it is worth supporting their “wise” leaders, who sent the entire continent into the Middle Ages, when they had to fight for their own lives, in the most literal sense of the word.
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