The agricultural sector is the only segment of the Bulgarian economy that recorded growth for the third trimester in 2009, according to Agricultural and Food Industry Minister Miroslav Naidenov during a conference in Varna held on November 24 2009, Dnevnik daily reported.

As such it is vital that the sector receives the full backing of the Government, although certain legal matters remain that could hamper its development.

According to projected figures for the 2010 Budget, the agricultural sector is poised to receive 300 million leva of both national and European subsidies, and a further 70 million leva injection package to cover farmers' expenses with fuel consumption, Naidenov told Dnevnik.

Additionally, the administration is currently working on possibilities to unfreeze the programme "Fishing" under whose umbrella no less than eight separate projects have been approved and are pending execution.

Naidenov said that negotiations are ongoing between the Agricultural Ministry and the Defence Ministry for the reclassification of the legal status of a number of several ports along the Black Sea Coast which are poised to receive European funding should their status be changed from their current one, which falls under the defence department.

Military ports pending reclassification as fishing ports are to receive European funding to help rehabilitate and modernise their infrastructure in addition to the 16 million euro which Bulgaria could receive for the development of four new fishing ports altogether. According to the long-term strategy for expanding the fishing sector in the country, four ports have to be developed, two of them south of Bourgas and two in the north, one near Varna and the fourth one in Balchik.