site.btaOrganic Production in Bulgaria Plummets - Organic Farmer

The Bulgarian Organic Products Association (BOPA) is participating for the first time in the International Trade Fair for Organic Food and Non-Food Products, BIOEXPO, which is underway in Warsaw until October 8, BOPA Chairperson Albena Simeonova said, interviewed by the Bulgarian National Radio. Simeonova, who is an organic farmer herself, said that the Bioexpo trade fair is one of the biggest such events in Europe and that Bulgaria's participation in it was made possible thanks to financial assistance from the Agriculture Ministry. 

Simeonova said the Bulgarians exhibitors at the event hope to find new trade contacts and gain footholds on new markets for the Bulgarian organic produce. She said that the ill-advised policy for organic farming in this country over a number of years has led to a drastic drop in the sector. Simeonova said that consumers in Poland still remember the taste of Bulgarian fruit, vegetables and other foods which this country used to export in big quantities in the past. 

Simeonova said that in Poland organic production has a share of 10%. In Bulgaria organic production came close to a share of 7% a few years ago but has now plummeted to 1.5%, she said.

At the background of "this  shamefully low share", Simeonova said import is growing of organic products the inputs for which were grown in Bulgaria, taken for processing to Germany, and returned to this country. 

Simeonova gave another example, with organic wine makers, whose grape produce is purchased cheaply by foreigners, again due to the lack of processing facilities. 

She said that only government assistance to producers for processing facilities of own produce in own farms will solve the problem. Another pressing need is assistance for marketing of Bulgarian-made organic products, she said. "These are things that were missed to be done in the years," Simeonova said, arguing that if the Bulgarian producers had been helped in processing their own produce, the sector would have developed differently. 

At the moment Bulgaria has only one slaughterhouse for organic animals and only handful of facilities to process fruit and vegetables for canning and juice production, she said.