site.btaDeputy Agriculture Minister: Bulgaria Will Request Postponement of Implementation of Two Environmental Standards for Farmers

Deputy Agriculture Deyan Stratev told journalists on Thursday that Bulgaria will ask for a postponement for another year on the implementation of two of the environmental standards that farmers have to meet. Stratev was in Pleven, North Central Bulgaria, to attend the International Beekeeping 2024 exhibition there. 

He pointed out that the farmers' protests in Europe are precisely related to the implementation of the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC) standards 7 and 8, which concern crop rotation and the requirement for large farmers with more than 10 hectares of land to leave 4% of their land fallow in order to support biodiversity and avoid soil disturbance.

We have claims, Romania also has claims, as do a number of other countries. According to Stratev, the two GAEC standards are among the main motives for the protests in Europe in general.

At the opening of the exhibition, the deputy minister said that beekeeping has become a dynamically developing sector of agriculture, with between 10 and 12,000 tonnes of high-quality honey produced annually in the country, and over 80% of which is exported to permanent buyers.