The consequences for the economy from the floods in June and ensuring drought and all the thousands of fires that raged across Bulgaria in July, are yet to be established, a specialist from the Economy Ministry told The Sofia Echo.

Since June, there have been more than 12 000 fires in Bulgaria. Most of them were in forests with millions of square metres of trees being destroyed.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture Stefan Yurukov said that about 230 sq km of forests had been destroyed over the few days before July 27.

The areas most affected by fires were the Stara Zagora and Haskovo regions. On July 26, the level of air pollution in the Stara Zagora region was reported to be three times above normal.

On July 23, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported that according to preliminary information, the fires in those two regions had affected about 12 sq km of forests and damage would exceed one million leva.

About 65 sq km had been affected by fire in the municipalities of Kazanluk and Muglizh (Central Bulgaria), according to information from the crisis command centre in Stara Zagora. More than 300 wildfires had struck the territory of Pazardzhik region since the beginning of July, burning about 24 sq km of woodlands. Fires had also destroyed 100 sq km of forests, orchards, farmland and grassland near the municipalities of Lovech and Letnitsa in North Central Bulgaria. Fires have also devastated woods in Pleven, Smolyan, Sofia, Shoumen, Vidin, Kyustendil, Sliven, Rousse, Chepelare, and other areas.

According to Standart daily, a total of 17.6 sq km of deciduous and 0.8 sq km of coniferous forests had been charred.

Against a background of the heat wave this summer and severe drought, Bulgarian farmers have harvested 2.1 million tons of wheat, which is significantly less than last year's harvest (3.2 million), the Agriculture Ministry said on July 26. For this year, the ministry expected at least 2.2 million tons with an outlook for 2.5 to 2.7 million tons to be harvested.

The average yield an hectare was 2.11 tons for 2007, the ministry said in a statement. This compares to 3.45 tons last year.

The situation with this year's barley harvest is similarly grim.  About 360 000 tons have been harvested, down from 550 000 last year, the ministry said.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, the drought had destroyed about 185 sq km of wheat this summer. About half of this was in the Pleven town region, where a disaster situation was announced in the middle of July because of the drought.

However, there will be no grain crisis as the bread balance for 2007-2008 had been secured, Deputy Agriculture Minister Svetla Bachvarova said on 22 July. The total amount of wheat yielded this year will secure the needs of the Bulgarian population. Still the amount is not enough for any to be exported. Annual consumption of bread wheat in Bulgaria is 1.2 million to 1.25 million tons. Another 600 000 to 700 000 tons goes for animal feed. Bulgaria has been exporting about a million tons of wheat in recent years.

Farmers are hoping to receive compensation for their crop losses from the state and not to have to wait for payments from the EU.

During a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on July 16 in Brussels, attended by Bulgarian Agriculture and Forestry Minister Nihat Kabil, it was agreed that aid to the amount of up to 3000 euro may be made available to each beneficiary, without a need for a notification from the European Commission. On August 1, Kabil said in an interview with bTV that farmers would indeed receive compensation for their barley and wheat losses by the end of the month. The Association of Agricultural Producers warned that this year also threatened rising prices for meat products because of a lack of animal feed. Some farmers have already announced that they have started slaughtering their animals because they have nothing to feed them.

On August 2, the Ministry of Agriculture was expected to announce the first official data about the state of spring crops from regional directorates of agriculture. The information will mainly refer to the damages on maize, sunflower and grain.