Bulgarian funding failing domestic organic producers
promote organic certification amongst Bulgarian food processors and
producers is failing smaller domestic enterprises in the country.
According to the USDA's foreign agricultural service (FAS), EU funding distributed by the country's pre-accession rural development funding (SAPARD) agency whilst helping larger producers geared towards export markets, is failing to help smaller domestic organic enterprises in Bulgaria.
As a result the country's food industry is missing out on a potentially lucrative domestic market for organic goods and ingredients.
The market for organic certified goods is currently estimated to be worth €15b in the EU alone, with many producers and processors in recent years hoping to exploit the growing demand.
As a result, earlier this year the EU announced that it would be investing €12.6m to encourage high altitude, labour intensive farming through environmentally sound practices.
Under communist rule the widespread unavailability of synthetic crops and seeds meant that very little residue prohibited under organic certification is present in Bulgarian soil.
As a result, while organic certification usually requires a conversion period of five to six years to remove unsuitable materials in most western areas, the same process has been found to be sufficiently reduced in Eastern Europe to around just one to two years in many instances.
This has made Bulgarian land prime ground for organic produce, offering chances particularly for foreign processors, as well as exporters of organically produced ingredients like seeds and rape.
While the investment is beginning to push production rates for more environmentally sound goods, the FAS found that 90 per cent of all Bulgarian organic food is exported to wealthier EU members.
The report adds this pattern is unlikely to change under current funding with more and more producers coming to the country to concentrate on lucrative export markets.
Organic farming on a domestic scale is generally for subsistence growth on small plots, which due to minimum size requirements for funding, are failing to benefit from the investments enjoyed by its larger counterparts.
With the generally lower income rates in Bulgaria, as well as poor awareness of organic food the domestic industry continues to remain small.
In its latest action plan the Bulgarian government has announced that it is keen to focus on creating a stronger domestic demand for organic products to make the market for smaller producers more commercially viable.
In response some processors including local group Nash Dom, are beginning to find some success in creating local demand for organic goods.
The company announced after a successful trail of their organic pickles and peppers through the Metro supermarket chain in Sofia, it would be increasing its output for nationwide distribution of its goods.
