site.btaBulgaria Sells Half of Its Wine Abroad

ESD 12:15:00 04-12-2014
SN1215ES.105
105 ECONOMY - WINE INDUSTRY - INTERVIEW

Bulgaria Sells
Half of Its Wine
Abroad


Plovdiv, South Central Bulgaria, December 4 (BTA) - Half of
Bulgaria's wine is sold abroad, while imported wine holds
between 12 and 13 per cent of the Bulgarian market, National
Vine and Wine Chamber President Radoslav Radev said in a BTA
interview earlier this week.

Bulgarian wine is exported mainly to Russia, Poland, the Czech
Republic, the United Kingdom and Germany, which have been buying
it for decades. The domestic market also has much potential,
which should be tapped diligently and using the correct
marketing approach, Radev said. According to him, efforts should
be made to boost sales to all of these markets and, more
importantly, to move up into higher price ranges.

Another major goal is to make sure that Bulgarian wine has
lasting presence in the United States, Canada, China and Japan,
where it is sold only occasionally at present, Radev said.

Bulgarian vine growers had a worse crop this autumn compared
with previous seasons, which was due to bad weather throughout
2014. Early estimates put the amount of the crop at 200,000
tonnes, Radev said. He believes that even though grape prices
have risen, wine prices will not follow suit, because wine
makers have reserves from past years.

He does not fear that Bulgarian wine makers may fail to fulfill
their contracts for sale at home or abroad, because the crop of
2013 had been rather good both in terms of quantity and quality,
so many producers still have wine from this and earlier
harvests.

Radev noted that there has always been a surplus of wine in the
European Union. The bloc has used various mechanisms to deal
with the problem over the years, such as limiting the right to
plant new vines, limiting crop amounts, or implementing
emergency distillation or voluntary distillation. Bulgaria has
always produced and exported wine amid strong competition from
other countries of Europe and the world, so the current
situation is nothing new, Radev commented. The fact that about a
dozen new wine cellars emerge in Bulgaria every year shows that
this is a lucrative sector offering good rates of return on
investment, he noted.

In recent years, wine making has been strongly influenced by
modern forms of trading such as supermarkets and hypermarkets.
Nearly 80 per cent of the world's wine is sold through such
outlet chains. This requires a radically different approach than
the philosophy of the wine industry in the 19th and 20th
centuries, Radev said.

Restaurant clients show much interest in imported wines, but
this should be viewed as part of the developing wine culture of
Bulgarians, which has implications for all market participants,
he said.

In Bulgaria, as in the rest of the world, demand for wine is
focused on the lower price ranges. As for the varieties, there
is a definite interest in exotic varieties which began to be
grown in the country in recent years, he said.

The National Programme to Support the Vine and Wine Sector
supports the uprooting of old vines and the planting of new
ones, the construction of soil erosion control systems and drip
irrigation facilities, and investments in wine making. Radev
said this was perhaps the first programme to be launched in
Bulgaria in the new programming period from 2014 to 2020, and
the launch was very successful, with 65 projects proposed after
the first call for bids. He is convinced that the industry will
continue to work on all measures as it has prepared many
projects. Another important instrument is the Rural Development
Programme, Radev said.