Twelve tons gross or over nine tons net weight of dates were received from Abu Dhabi and advertised by the Government and the Heasdquarters as 15 tons of "medical supplies". Special state commission was set up to count the dates and supplies at the Red Cross warehouse. The exact amount will be announced early next week.
According to unofficial information, 1403 cartons of dates in 8 and 5 kg packages were counted. As for medical supplies, a few days ago the Red Cross reported receiving 80,000 masks, 49,000 gloves and 32,000 overshoes. In addition, there are 3,970 half-liter disinfectant bottles and 1,824 250-milliliter disinfectant bottles, Bivol writes.
It was not clear why this counting was needed to be done by a state commission, since the Customs Agency should have the exact quantities of masks, gloves, overshoes, disinfectants and dates imported. The state may have concerns that some of the goods have disappeared between unloading from the aircraft and being deposited at the BRC warehouse in Dolni Lozen.
Out of the 15 tons of medical supplies that came with a special flight from Abu Dhabi, only three tons could be named medical, the rest are dates. So far, the authorities have not given a logical explanation for the strange deal with the Emirates, which involved close-to-power companies with strong logistical support from the state.
Two companies, Gradus and Intrust, have made a very serious deal with the United Arab Emirates. It concerns the exchange of 32 tons of food, for which we received 15 tons of medical supplies. The transport was on the companies’ expense and the state paid nothing. This is a great assistance because it is a matter of protective equipment – masks, gloves and clothing, ”said Gen. Mutafchiyski at a regular press briefing on Tuesday, April 14 at the Council of Ministers.
The Intrust company is the sole property of MP and publisher Delyan Peevski, who was regularly advertised at the Headquarters's morning briefings for his generous donations to hospitals in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. The foods exchanged are lamb, dairy and vegetables. Peevski also has interests in the dairy industry with the Lacrima company, which has been positioned on the Emirates market for years.
On Wednesday, the gen. Mutafchiyski was asked about the dates. He replied that he was not familiar with the details of the UAE donation. "Many of the donations can be any kind," the Headquarters boss announced. However, the National Health Inspector Angel Kunchev impressed reporters with a special statement: one medical mask weighs 2 grams and a box of dates – half a kilogram and it would not be fair to compare numbers and weight. In fact, it is no problem to calculate how many masks would be contained in 9 tons of dates. According to Kunchev's accounts, if one mask is 2 grams, there are 500 masks in one kilogram, 500 000 masks in one ton, and 4 500 000 masks in 9 tons.
It can also be estimated how many dates are per capita. Bivol conducted an "investigative experiment" (in the cover photo), according to which 10 lances weigh about 120 g. This means that one net kilo of dates contains between 80 and 90 numbers of the palm fruits. The data were verified by manually counting the dates in 1 kg. They turned out to be exactly 83 in number. It appears that we have received about 750,000 dates from the UAE. This makes one date to 9 Bulgarians if we consider ourselves to be 7 million, or one date to 6-7 people if only the actual residents in Bulgaria, without emigration, are taken into account.
But it became clear from the words of Minister Emil Karanikolov, who was accompanying the shipment from Abu Dhabi, that the dates would be distributed among the poor, not the entire population. "Dates are good, nutritious food," Karanikolov said.
It also became known that the placement of the dates will be handled by the National Logistics Coordination Center under the management of the Chief of the Fire Brigades Chief Commissioner Nikolay Nikolov. This structure was created on March 15 to "support efforts to obtain, order, distribute and prioritize" protective materials – masks, gloves and clothing. Obviously, the perimeter of the Centre's tasks has been already expanded with food distribution.
