20,000 – 25,000 Bulgarians Lost their Job Because of African Swine Fever

Some 20,000 - 25,000 people in Bulgaria have already lost their jobs because of African swine fever, financial expert Mika Zaykova said in an interview with Focus News Agency, commenting on the economic consequences of the disease.
The unemployment in the country is no longer 5%, and their number might rise further, they all will ask for unemployment benefits, the expert explained. 
Zaykova also commented on the rise in the price of pork, "For now, it has been between 7 and 10%, but experts project that its price will rise up to 10, 20, 30%." 
She further said Bulgaria can now expect trading partners to stop buying Bulgarian pork despite the fact the ASF is not harmful to humans. "But people are already afraid. They will terminate their contracts, and rightfully so. This is an extremely big loss," she said, adding that the estimated BGN 2 billion that the country faces losing is not the final figure as if the disease crosses the Stara Planina mountain and reaches to south Bulgaria, the whole pig farming industry will "go to rack and ruin". 

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