site.btaClimate Change Is Growing Challenge to Competitiveness of Bulgarian Agriculture, Economic and Social Council Finds

Bulgarian agriculture is facing challenges related to climate change, which are having an increasingly serious impact on its competitiveness. Alongside the difficulties associated with climate change and the marketing of produce, producers face a number of other global and local challenges, the Economic and Social Council (ESC) of the Republic of Bulgaria said in its opinion "Problems and challenges for the competitiveness of Bulgarian agricultural producers", which was adopted at the Council's plenary session on Wednesday.

Successfully tackling these factors requires a comprehensive approach involving investment in modernization, support from the State, cooperation between producers and active participation in European and international initiatives. The ESC highlights that a number of problems and challenges to the competitiveness of the country's agricultural producers are due to regulatory gaps and regulatory failures in national legislation.

As a result of adverse climatic events such as frost, freeze, storm, continuous rain, flood, hail and drought, in 2024 there are failed areas with completely destroyed crop production. There are more than 20 affected districts in the country. Lower yields and higher production costs, as well as disrupted production cycles, make it difficult to export and compete with countries with better developed irrigation and climate resilient practices. The livestock sector is also affected: heat waves and droughts limit pasture and fodder, and reduced access to quality food leads to reduced animal productivity and increased costs for supplementary feeding.

Another major challenge to the competitiveness of Bulgaria's agricultural sector identified by the ESC is the lack of labour. Many trained personnel emigrate due to better financial opportunities in other countries.

To address this problem, there is a need to attract and retain labour through government incentives and long-term employment programmes, as well as facilitating the import of workers from third countries, the Council said in its opinion.

The ESC also adopted a resolution on a foreign agent registration bill. In it, the ESC expresses serious concern about the proposed Foreign Agents Registration Bill tabled in the 51st National Assembly on November 11, 2024, as well as similar bills introduced in the previous three National Assemblies.