Bulgaria’s Zaharni Zavodi AD, the Gorna Oryahovitsa-based sugar mill, will start buying out sugar beet from producers after September 12, 2005. The refinery expects to process some 30,000 t of beet this autumn. Zaharni Zavodi is the only mill in Bulgaria that still manufactures white sugar from beet. The rainstorms this year have affected only 30 ha of the 1,130 ha planted with sugar beet, farmers said. About a week ago the refinery began processing 15,000 t of raw cane sugar. The company paid a 50-percent customs duty after a competitor appealed the government's decision for additional preferential imports of raw sugar. When this year's quota was distributed, Zaharni Zavodi received just 27,000 t, i.e. one-third of the amount requested. Despite the difficulties, the company did not shut down and retained most of its workers. About one-third of them were transferred to growing sugar beet.