Agriculture in Bulgaria has had lean times since the fall of communism, when, according to official statistics of the time, it was one of the leading producers in the Soviet bloc.

Among the major challenges it has faced are loss of ground in some traditional markets, difficulties caused by the process of restitution of land confiscated during the communist era, and now it faces the challenge of bringing itself up to European Union standards.

The latest official statistics, which date back to 2003 as recorded in the Agriculture Report 2004 approved by the Cabinet in January 2005, say that about 1.3 million people were employed in agriculture, of whom permanently employed full-time workers were 335 000.

In that year, 2003, Bulgaria ran a positive agricultural trade balance of $185 million.

Bulgaria’s significant agricultural products include vegetables, fruits, tobacco, livestock, wine, wheat, barley, sunflowers, and sugar beets.

To meet EU requirements, the Agriculture Ministry, which as of February 2005 is headed by Nihat Kabil, has identified the following priorities for 2005: implementing commitments made under the agriculture and fisheries chapters of EU negotiations, working for farmland consolidation, effective use of SAPARD funds, and preparing strategic planning documents for the development of rural areas in the 2007 to 2013 period.

The Government is continuing its efforts, launched earlier in its term, of developing the country’s wine industry.

According to a statement by former agriculture minister Mehmed Dikme in February 2005, total investments in Bulgaria’s agricultural sector amounted to 1.6 billion leva in the past three years.

In March, Bulgaria announced that it had doubled its aid for 2005 for agricultural exports to 1.5 million leva. The exports that this step is expected to boost include poultry, eggs, dairy products, lamb and canned fruit and vegetables.

Meanwhile, the meat industry is among those facing a major challenge to meet EU requirements before the country’s scheduled accession date in January 2007.

However, the industry has faced problems in modernisation, because of limited financial resources. The country’s main meat export is lamb. The meat export market is small, with about six per cent of total meat produced being exported.

According to the Agriculture Report 2004, gross agricultural output was 6.7 billion leva. Crop production accounted for 51.7 per cent of the gross output while the share of livestock production was 30.8 per cent; farm services and non-farming activities accounted for the remaining 17.5 per cent.

A significant recent development was the approval in March 2005 by Parliament of a Genetically Modified Organisms Bill. The law will ban sale and “release into the environment” of genetically modified tobacco, vines, cotton, cultivated roses, wheat, fruit and vegetables. The bill puts the same ban on GMOs containing antibiotic resistance genetic markers, as well as of GMOs as products or ingredients of products for which EU countries have issued a refusal.