Bulgaria Agriculture Profile 2012

Farming provides a livelihood for about-fourth of the people. Additional than half the area of Bulgaria, amounting to almost 15 million acres (6 million hectares) is covered by farmland. During 1946–91, most farmland was in cooperatives or government-owned national farms, but some was set aside for private use. In 1991 the Bulgarian government began to sell amount the national-owned and collectivized farms to private individuals. Wheat, barley, corn, oats, rye, rice, tobacco, and sugar beets are the chief crops. Bulgaria as well produces a variety of fruits and vegetables, which include apples, grapes, potatoes, pears, tomatoes, and watermelons.. A major specialty crop is roses, which yield attar of roses, an essential oil used in making fine perfumes. Much of Bulgaria's crop production is exported, usually after some local processing. Cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, and chickens are the majority widely raised farm animals, and cow’s milk is of the major farm products.

Bulgaria: Turning a corner

Bulgaria’s agricultural sector is coming out of a-decades-long rough patch and has pulled out of the recent recession additional strongly than the economy as a whole, with regulatory changes and growing export potential contributing to a stronger outlook.

Agriculture has been of the quiet successes of the past few years, according to a 2009 statement by Food Policy, a food sector journal, which noted that exports of consumer-ready foods and horticultural products have performed well since Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007. Exports of milk and dairy products grew from €43m in 2005 to €73m in 2008, while production almost doubled from €167m to €318m, according to Invest Bulgaria Agency.

Increase of meat and livestock exports has been slower, from €113m in 2005 to €120m in 2008, but in general output has risen strongly, from €525m to €861m, making the segment a significant economic contributor.

It’s been a long road to get to this point, however. Despite collectivisation and consolidation from the 1940s on failing to boost agricultural production, Bulgaria was of Eastern Europe’s leading food exporters in the 1980s, particularly as livestock production was increased at the expense of arable crops. The use of fertiliser and pesticides on an industrial scale was promoted to boost output. Bulgaria’s agricultural sector was then set back by the economic difficulties of the first decades after the fall of communism in 1990.

The immediate post-communist years saw Bulgaria enter an economic crisis that had an acute effect on food supplies, half due to previous policy. Capital for investment in farming was difficult approaching by, the privatisation of the collective farms was patchy, lack of land deeds (some destroyed by communist officials) made ownership rights uncertain, and a lot of new smallholders did not have the technical or business knowledge to extract price from their land. Bulgaria’s export markets part former communist nations were as well hit hard. Furthermore, considerable tracts of land were severely degraded by intensive use of fertilisers.

Additional recently, the presence of major international firms such as Nestle, Kraft and Papas Oil have played an significant role in increasing output. While the schemes have not been free of controversy, agricultural support from the EU through programmes such as the Special Accession Programme for Agricultural and Rural Improvment(SAPARD) and the Common Agricultural Policy have provided much-needed funds and technical help for farmers.

The sector clocked up real price increase of 3.8% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2010, up from 0.9% in the first, while the economy as a whole, deeply affected by the world economic crisis, shrank by 1.4%, according to a statement by Raiffeisen Bank.

Legislative changes that entered into force on October 26 will as well make market access easier for Bulgaria’s a lot of small farmers. Before, little regulatory infrastructure existed to allow farmers to process and sell their farm food, including cheese, directly to retailers, restaurants and consumers, making a lot of dairy farmers reliant on sales of milk to dairies. With milk prices low, their margins were often negligible, but within months they will be able to sell their own price-added products on the open market, giving them additional cash to invest in improving their farms and diversify their farm produce, including typical food products that are an integral part of local gastronomic traditions.

“We very much hope that small farms can grow, and these reforms should be a good stimulus for farm development,” Dessislava Dimitrova, the national coordinator in Bulgaria for Slow Food, an international organisation that supports traditional food and farming, told OBG. “It is very significant for small farmers to have the opportunity to sell produce to consumers, so the changes are a large step for them.”

Dimitrova as well argues that the changes will be good for consumers, by increasing choice and particularly availability of niche regional products, adding competition for the major dairy companies. Over the longer term, she as well expects them to increase export potential by increasing the output of high-price specialist foods, for which there is a growing market in Europe in particular. An example regularly cited is that of Bulgarian green cheese, a unique product for which there is considerable interest abroad but for which there is no legal regulation for production in the country, meaning that producers cannot increase output.

For the foreseeable next, the major players on the Bulgarian agricultural and food markets will still be large firms, including the a lot of internationals that have invested in the country and helped raise the level of technology and capital, boosting output considerably. But Bulgaria’s a lot of smallholders have an increasing role to play. With world food prices on the rise again, and opportunities for tapping into niche markets growing, Bulgaria’s farmers large and small can stand to reap the benefits.