Following two years of preparatory work, red tape problems, government crises, nature disasters, 426 remarks on behalf of the European Commission and four different versions, the Bulgarian Rural Development Programme for the period 2014-2020 has in the long last been approved. "I am happy that the European Commission has approved the Bulgarian Rural Development Programme, PM Boyko Borissov wrote on his Facebook account. Bulgaria will receive financing worth 2.3 billion euro. I was seriously concerned over this programme“, he admitted.

In the course of seven years Brussels is going to pay the total of 2.3 billion euro to Bulgarian farmers. To them annual national co-financing worth 600 million euro and payments per unit of area of farming land should be added. Some 110,000 farmers have applied for the latter subsidy in 2015.

Are subsidies to the tune of more than 3 billion euro enough and will they help finally steer Bulgarian agriculture into modernity and revive the old glory of Bulgarian meat, milk, vegetables and fruit?

Until 30 years ago Bulgaria’s agriculture was a key sector of its economy and employed many. Now things have dramatically changed. Today the agrarian sector accounts for just 5% of the country’s GDP; less than 30% of Bulgarians still live in villages and few of them are engaged in farming. With this at hand, Bulgarians have started to consume mostly imported food. According to expert evaluations in certain seasons more than 80% of fruit and vegetables are imported. The situation is similar with milk and cheese, meat and sausages. In the meantime, Bulgaria still has ideal climatic conditions for a prosperous agriculture. The climate is moderate; the varied landscape allows for growing a great variety of plants, the traditions of Bulgarian farmers are old and their skills proven and effective. It is not for nothing that more than 100 years ago Bulgarian vegetable growers emigrated to teach their skills to farmers in Central Europe.

Today however the Bulgarian farming produce is in difficulties finding markets even at home. The democratic and market reforms in the sector have resulted in an unprecedented fragmentation of land plots and ownership. This has prevented small owners of land from implementing most recent and very expensive technology in farming and this has kept their prices relatively high. To make things worse, as Bulgaria acceded to the European Union, the negotiated size of subsidies for Bulgarian farmers was considerably smaller than subsidies paid to old member countries’ farmers. This has naturally led to periodical crises of overproduction. A few years ago coming under pressure from considerably cheaper Greek and Spanish tomatoes Bulgarian producers held protests and paved roads with unsold tomatoes. Now dairy farmers are in dire straits, as wholesale traders offer them not more than 50 eurocents per liter of cow milk. After the abolition of the EU dairy quotas, a surplus has surfaced that should be sold somewhere. In this way cheap imported milk has drowned Bulgarian producers.

The Bulgarian authorities are fully aware that Bulgarian products could fare well on the European market if only they could offer great quality and competitive prices. This looks hard to achieve given that agriculture is the most heavily subsidized sector in the bloc. But it is not impossible and exactly for the same reason part of the funding from the new Rural Development Programme might go for investments i.e. for agrarian modernization of the country. Another part of financing is going to provide incentives to young farmers, something that is urgent against the backcloth of the fast ageing of the population especially in rural regions.

English version Daniela Konstantinova