site.btaSofia's First Farmers Market Celebrates 10th Birthday

Sofia's first farmers market started at the Rimska Stena Market ten years ago, on October 21, 2013. Since then, it has been held there every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

"When we began, some 60-70% of the stalls in the Rimska Stena Market were empty. Then nobody believed that the project titled 'Rimska Stena: Sofia's Green Dot' would attract any interest. We invited 30 producers and three ventured out, but almost everything they had brought sold out within two or three hours. The number of producers started to grow by word of mouth, reaching 15 by the end of 2014," Hrankoop Sofia Chair Nikolay Genov said at a special farmers' breakfast for the media, held at the Finca Cocoa and Coffee Space at Rimska Stena to mark the occasion. 

The mix of tenants at the market has changed, and now six or seven kiosks are now rented by farmers, and two farmers shops and two bakeries have taken the place of a tobacconist's, a liquor store, and outlets offering linen and laundry detergents.

To date, between 40 and 50 producers gather every Saturday at Rimska Stena. "Right from the outset we agreed that the most important thing was to support fruit and veg. Accordingly, we want up to 50% of the participants to be selling fresh produce, up to 10% dairy products, up to 10% bee products, and up to 10% meat, jams, syrups, bread, ready-to-eat and processed food. The idea is to have a merchandise mix enabling a person to do their week's shopping here," Genov said.

The limited space forces the organizers to turn back producers every week because too many are willing to join the farmers market. "We get calls from producers who are desperate to find a sales venue. Their produce is in hot demand, but not that hot enough to keep them going. Hence the price levels," Genov explained. Still, he argued that the idea that prices on the Bulgarian market are high is a popular misconception: items on farmers' markets are about 20-40% more expensive than on conventional markets but 50% cheaper than in organic produce shops.

Hrankoop Sofia Management Board member Ralitsa Kasimova, who coordinates producer-related activities, said that once a month they send an application form out to their large pool of producers countrywide so that both applicants and organizers can plan.

Comprehensive Control

As far as quality is concerned, the cooperative makes a point of knowing as much as possible about both producers and their produce. To be admitted, participants must be registered as producers of the produce they offer, and their records are kept on file. "The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency watches us quite closely," Kasimova explained. 

She added that the farms are subject to comprehensive control, with organizers checking their documents and visiting them on site. Occasionally, responding to an alert or acting at random, samples are sent for laboratory analysis. Over the ten years since the launch of the farmers market with its hundreds of participants, a discrepancy with what was stated in the documents has been identified on a single occasion.

Sellers at farmers markets must be either the farmers themselves or their family members or workers on their farms because they are just the right persons to answer "what", "why" and "how" questions.

Kasimova has noticed that producers adjust their production practices and expand their product range based on their weekly experience of participating in the market and comparing notes with fellow farmers. In her opinion, a secure and long-term market enables producers to plan.

"We set top priority by trust, and we take them on trust when we charge our participation fee - we don't check prices, turnovers, etc. That's the way we have opted to work, we call it 'solidarity support'," Kasimova commented.

Genov cited an analysis according to which the major retail chains had some 120 grocery stores in Sofia in 2022, while there were only two farmers markets in the city. "Over those ten years we wanted to organize a chain of farmers markets, following the model of London," Genov recalled. A project at the Ivan Vazov Market started very well - until the local authority sold the land, and it proved impossible to recover. Another similar attempt in the Bankya suburb failed as well.

Hrankoop Sofia maintained a farmers market in Haskovo (South Central Bulgaria) but were unable to develop it further for lack of an on-site team. To make up for it, the market in Dobrich (Northeastern Bulgaria) has been alive and kicking for six years now. The latest location is Pernik (Southwestern Bulgaria), for which dates have been confirmed until the end of the year.

Another long-standing initiative of the cooperative is the Sofia Farmers Festival, which will take place next in front of the National Palace of Culture this coming weekend, October 28 and 29.

Hrankoop Sofia brings together clean food consumers and producers. It started as an informal group in 2010, registered as a cooperative at the end of 2015, and now has 74 full members and over 150 associated consumers and producers.