Bulgarian farmers expected a bumper harvest of 3.8 million tons of wheat in 2008, an increase of nearly 60 per cent over the previous year, the head of the cereals producers association Krassimir Avramov told Reuters, as quoted by Dnevnik daily on July 8.

In 2007, only 2.4 million tons were harvested, largely due to the rainy weather and floods that hit the country in April and August.

The barley harvest is expected to come in at 740 000 tons, compared to 420 000 tons a year ago, Avramov was quoted as saying.

The better harvest would allow Bulgaria to export 1.35 million tons of wheat and 250 000 tons of barley this year, he added.

Bad weather in 2007 was singled out as the main reason for the underpar harvest, which resulted in foodstuffs prices rising by more than 25 per cent year-on-year at end-May and contributed to annual inflation in the country growing to a 10-year high of15 per cent in May.