Tobacco growers protesting against a low prices and a slow start to the buying season gained the backing of one of the country’s ruling political parties, novinite.com reported.

Lyutvi Mestan, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedom (MRF), said Bulgarian law no longer sets the selling season, which he said was a failing of the previous government. MRF is one of the parties in Bulgaria’s Socialist led coalition government, said the website, an affiliate of Sofia News Agency.
Growers gathered in Harmanli, southern Bulgaria, on 5 Jan, where they briefly blocked a highway leading to Turkey to protest delays in the purchase of Basma-type oriental tobacco and the low price paid this year compared to 2012, novinite.com said.