THE heavy rain and floods during May and June have caused extensive damage to this year's crops.
According to a June 7 report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, nearly 165 000 decares of crops - mostly wheat, sunflower, maize, and barley - have been laid waste in 10 regions in the country.
The regions worst affected were Veliko Turnovo, Rousse, Lovech, Montana, Vratsa, Stara Zagora, Sofia, Pleven, Shumen and Turgovishte. 
Apart from grain crops, various fruit plantations have been destroyed by floods.
Farmers in Rousse reported that the bad weather had laid waste to up to 40 per cent of the vines. In the Pleven region nearly 100 decares of melon fields have been destroyed, while in the Veliki Preslav 150 decares of vines were destroyed.
According to the ministry, 823 decares of strawberries and 152 of raspberry plants had been destroyed by floods.
In an interview with weekly newspaper Kapital, the director of the Sofia Commodity Exchange, Vassil Simov, said the wheat yield this year had not been entirely destroyed. This was because most of the flooding happened in mountainous regions, where wheat does not grow. Simov said that this year's harvest would be four million tons more than last year's, and it would compensate for the losses caused by the floods. He said that prices would remain much the same.
Fruit and vegetable traders, however, cited the bad weather as a reason to increase prices of seasonal fruits and vegetables. They demanded the lifting of protective duties on imports, saying that flooding had caused significant damage to orchards and fields.