site.btaVegetable Growers in Burgas Region Compelled Out of Business

Dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of vegetable producers in the Burgas Region have ceased their activities in the last few years, said on Tuesday Nikolay Nedyalkov, former Chair of the Association of Agricultural Producers in Southeast Bulgaria.

"Out of the 142 members of the association since its foundation more than 13 years ago, only three vegetable producers are still members today", he pointed out. Even Nedyalkov himself, an agronomist by education who has grown his vegetable plantations for many years, has left the business. "At the moment I am engaged in raising bee colonies and bee hives. I used to grow 24 ha of vegetables, today the fields are empty," he said.

Nedyalkov noted that Bulgarian vegetable production covers a very small part of the domestic market and that Bulgarian farmers, facing increased pressure from imported production, have no way to maintain their production. "Bulgaria, which is home to so many patents in vegetable production, currently imports more tomatoes than bananas. In the last 10 years alone, thousands of Bulgarian agricultural producers have unregistered, the majority of whom are vegetable producers", said Nedyalkov.

He concluded that it would be very difficult to achieve the restoration of Bulgarian vegetable production, as there is a lack of sufficient workforce in the sector.