site.btaBad Year for Bulgarian Cherry Growers

Tonnes of cherries will be rotting away unpicked this year, say cherry growers from the southwestern region of Kyustendil, which is famous for its cherries. The reasons for this are the low purchase prices, the higher prices of plant protection products, the lack of purchasers, the high wages pickers want, as well as the lack of cherry processing enterprises. 

"I have been working in the agriculture sector for 60 years, but I haven't seen anything like what's been happening in recent years. Things are getting worse each year," Kiril Dimitrov told BTA. He is growing 10 ha of cherry trees between the southwestern towns of Kyustendil and Dupnitsa. According to Dimitrov, this is the result of shutting down the cherry processing enterprises that happened throughout the years of transition from a planned to a market economy. He recalls that there were several such enterprises in the region that processed all the cherries and nothing went to waste. "The produce now is much less than before, but we can't utilize the harvest because there are no enterprises," he says.

The only cherry purchasers in the region are an Italian company from the village of Kopilovtsi and two other local private enterprises that buy limited quantities. "They can't solve the cherry problem in the region alone," Dimitrov says. 

The cost of growing cherries for producers stood at 0.70 lv/kg last year, while purchasers paid between 0.60 and 1 leva/kg. The latter price has increased to 1.10-1.20 leva/kg, but the prices of fertilizers and plant protection products have gone up three- to four-fold. "Cherry pickers in turn refuse to work for less than 0.80 leva/kg and things continue to be problematic," Dimitrov said. 

A kilo of cherries costs between 4 and 5 leva on the market right now. 

According to him, if the State fails to take measures to protect cherry farming, especially in the region of Kyustendil, where it is developed, the sector will deteriorate. "I already got rid of 1.5 ha from my cherry farm and will get rid of another 1.5 ha. I will use the wood for heating for a few winters and this is how the famous Kyustendil cherries will come to an end," Dimitrov says.

He believes that the State must intervene by establishing a processing enterprise. That could happen with EU help, as is the case in Greece. "We, the producers, can become shareholders and work on growing the fruit and marketing it," Dimitrov notes.

According to data from the Kyustendil Agriculture Institute, this year's cherry harvest in the region is about half of what it usually is in better years. The reasons are the late frost, which caused significant damage in some regions. The recent heavy rains also deteriorated the cherries' quality, because the fruit started cracking, the Institute's Deputy Director Dr. Dimiter Sotirov, told BTA. On the other hand, the hot dry weather in May has prompted cherries to ripen early, resulting in smaller fruits. The problem are the ongoing rains. The forecast is for even more rain, which will aggravate the situation with the harvest, Sotirov says. 

The purchase of cherries started at 0.80 leva/kg last week, while cherry pickers demand 0.70 leva/kg. Many cherry growers are resolved to leave their cherries unpicked. Cherry orchard owners who have invested heavily are unlikely to make a profit or come out even, Sotirov says. According to him, many cherry growers are even deciding to stop tending to their trees. There are remote small cherry farms, where the cost of transporting pickers are high, which means that the cherries will remain unpicked in many such places, he argues. 

There are currently around 1,700 ha of cherry orchards in the region of Kyustendil, at least a third of which will remain unpicked. Cherry producers argue that in addition to the high cost of cherry picking, wholesalers have already bought what they need and there is no market for the remaining cherries. 

A few years ago, there was a tendency of planting new cherry orchards in the region, but now this is at a standstill, because people are hesitant to invest in something uncertain, according to the local Agriculture Institute. Last year was also problematic because of the pandemic and exports were very low, while the domestic market could not absorb much of the produce, cherry farmers say. According to data of the Institute, the region produces between 5,000 and 8,000 tonnes of cherries annually.