Bulgarian poultry industry gets boost
The ministry has announced that the country’s meat output for last year totalled 200,400 tonnes (t).
Of these, close to 160,000t were produced at the country's slaughterhouses, up 2.6% compared with a year earlier, and the remaining 40,400t at local farms, the ministry said in a statement.
Last year, Bulgaria’s poultry meat output at slaughterhouses totalled 88,200t, which represented an increase of 3.7% compared with 2013. The country’s slaughterhouses and farms produced a total of 102,200t of poultry meat.
Beef, pig, goat meat
Meanwhile, beef, pig and goat meat production decreased by 6.5% to 98,200t, according to figures released by the ministry.
The reduction was mostly due to a lower output by Bulgarian farms, as local slaughterhouses managed to increase their red meat output for 2014 by 0.9% to 61,900t.
Slaughterhouses generated 63% of the country’s red meat output, while farms were responsible for the remaining 37%. In 2014, there were 23 slaughterhouses active in the Bulgarian poultry meat segment, as well as 70 slaughterhouses operating in the country’s red meat segment.
The Bulgarian ministry also unveiled that the country’s livestock numbers posted a significant decrease in the past year, as indicated by data released by the ministry.
Pig numbers decreased
The country’s bovine population was down by 4% to some 552,800 head, while its pig numbers decreased by 5.7% to 553,100. Last year, a total of 2.2 million head were slaughtered in Bulgaria, which represented a decrease of 5.7% compared with a year earlier.
Bulgaria's red meat consumption rose by 2.7% year-on-year, and, as a result, imports expanded by 9%. That said, local red meat exporters decreased their foreign sales by 6.4%.
Last year, the country’s domestic consumption of poultry meat expanded by 8.6% compared with 2013, and this was reflected by higher imports, which increased by 12.1%. Meanwhile, local poultry meat players managed to raise their export sales by 5%, as shown by figures from the ministry.
Expand international sales
On a related note, in May 2015, the country’s poultry meat industry was enabled to expand its international sales following an agreement signed by Bulgaria’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Desislava Taneva and Japanese Ambassador in Sofia Takashi Koizumi.
“The two parties have agreed upon the veterinary and other medical certificates and examinations that Bulgarian products need to comply with… [the regulations in] Japan,” the Bulgarian ministry said in a statement.
“Currently, all Bulgarian food producers are looking for new markets,” Taneva said following the signing of the agreement. “Our country has reached good standards and this is the right moment for us to [expand to new markets in] the world.”
