Mention the words “farm fair”, and most people conjure images of jumbled stalls with farmers in overalls and straw hats proudly displaying a bountiful produce of corn, apples, pumpkins and eggs in wooden buckets, with cows, chickens, sheep and pigs standing on mats of straws mooing, clucking, baahing and oinking.
The 15th annual International Specialised Exhibition entitled Agriculture and Everything for It, that ran from August 28 until September 1 2007in Dobrich, fit that picture. But only one per cent of it – two pens of hogs at the far end.
Covering the grounds of the City Sports Complex southwards for some 200m, the fair featured machinery, seeds, chemicals and other products connected to every conceivable aspect of farm life, professionally displayed in telegenic booths, amidst big trees and sloping terrain.
Stilettos in the muck
As such it had an almost carnival-like atmosphere. Unlike the stereotypical farm exhibition of middle-aged countryboys, about 50 per cent of the smartly dressed exhibitors were female and the summer-fashioned guests looked no different from those in a shopping mall: families, teens, friends, couples. Many seemed to just browse along and marvel at the sights, as they would at a technology show or museum. Also catering to their needs were numerous makeshift kebabche and sausage eateries, cafes and ice cream stands.
Look what Pa brought home!
And further removed from the old, beat-up farm equipment associated with villages, virtually all the machinery here was brand new and state of the art. These included tillers, portable generators, lawn mowers, chain saws, hedge trimmers, weed whackers and various garden tools and mechanical spare parts and components.
A couple stalls even featured high-tech apparatus for milking, indicative of an industrial-scale enterprise. One small section, a scene straight out of a mad scientist’s lab or whiz kid’s garage, drew the most onlookers. Consisting of huge copper vats, stainless steel cylinders and piping, a technician manning it said these were manufactured at ASA Andovov in Plovdiv. “You can distil all the brandy you want…in the comfort of your backyards,” he told the assembly. His was just one of 380 companies present, including more than 30 from different countries.
As it often the case, however, Bulgarian suppliers carry imports, says Vladimir Tomov, a former army officer and owner of Eltron, a company that distributes spray pumps from Annovi, an Italian company. Mounted on any tractor, they can spray pesticides, herbicides or any other agrochemical onto fields.
They also import water-mist cooler components that technicians assemble in their workshop. “These can significantly reduce the ambient temperatures of a chicken coop or piggery, which reduces mortality from the summer heat,” said his wife Snezhina Boyanova, who, when not explaining highly technical details, teaches English at the American College in Veliko Turnovo. Their fourth time at the Dobrich fair, they have had farmers from all over north-eastern Bulgaria inquiring and conducting business with them.
He said it was a bargain
In terms of utility, some of the items on display require a greater stretch of the imagination. Case in point: shiny, brand-new luxury cars lined the walkway leading into the sports hall. Presumably these were to eventually supplant the horse and buggy and Lada as the king of personal transport on the farmstead.
The antechamber and basketball court within had been transformed into a showroom fitted with small to medium-sized booths displaying and selling seeds from a whole plethora of garden vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants. Others showcased samples of neatly bundled wheat stalks and grain kernels.
To explain and promote their products, individuals, pairs or even entire sales teams of five manned the various stalls. Some were giving away gift-wrapped chocolate sweets.
But the highlight of the fair was undoubtedly the big toys: tractors, combine harvesters, harrowing discs, cultivators, ploughs, devices for furrowing, sowing, spraying and weeding. Like car sales lots, the organisers carefully arranged different makes and models of Case, Claas, Geringhoff, Hurlimann, Kuhn, John Deere, McCormick and New Holland on four miniature football pitches normally used by children’s league football or for practice sessions.
Good-bye little Froelich
Indeed these tractors with their immaculate paintings and sleek designs, in sharp contrast to the old, dusty, scruffy ones seen in villages and motorways, looked almost like race cars. The bigger ones along with the combines would make monster-truck exposition and derby fans feel right at home.
One of the biggest was the Acros 540. According to Genady Kirilov, sale manager for Bultrex Ltd in Levski, the combine from Russia measures 4.5m high, 12m long and weighs 11 tons. “It can be outfitted to harvest wheat, corn or sunflowers,” he explained. “It even has a built-in computer.” The machine distributorship has 70 different machines and equipment on offer from factories in Belarus, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine, as well as Bulgaria.
Among the throngs of people at the main booth was the only person who spoke decent English, Tamer Karakurum. A sales representative of Armatrac, a tractor company in Ankara, Turkey, he says his team makes frequent business trips throughout Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Syria and Azerbaijan. “Our tractors contain GPS satellite navigational systems!” he says proudly.
Many people at the fair, including exhibitors, think the tractors and combines are driven to and from their headquarters, as far off as Sofia. Kirilov revealed that someone drives them only to and from a nearby transport facility were they are loaded, sometimes partially dissembled, onto special trailers and trucked out. “This way we save on wear and tear on our vehicles,” he explains.
Look what we learned
In addition to all the hardware on display, numerous conferences and lectures took place at various venues on such issues as investment and financing agricultural schemes, health and safety, organic farming, agricultural policies, trade and problems facing farmers such as heat and drought, diseases and pests.
The agricultural fair opened with a ceremony attended by dignitaries that included executive director of the State Fund for Agriculture Dimitar Tadarakov, executive director of the National Veterinary Services Zheko Baichev, three MEPs and members of the Polish embassy.
Dobrich mayor Detelina Nikolova addressed the gathering. “The increasing number of participants proves that more and more agricultural-related businesses feel confident about facing their clients and partners.” And more broadly speaking, she said international interest here stems from the Dobroudja region being the granary of Bulgaria, with more potential for growth. “Dobrich will soon become the European capital of agricultural business,” she said.
Everyone then watched and listened in silence as Tadarakov took the microphone. “Bulgarian agriculture will receive funding from the EU to the tune of 6.5 billion euro,” he announced. Of this, he said that 3.2 billion would be earmarked under a special programme, and go towards agricultural and rural development, while 3.3 billion would go in the form of direct, individual payments to farmers.
He went on to explain that the main aim of the State Fund is to ensure that Bulgarian producers gain equal access to the European market, and for them to become more competitive. A side benefit for the farmers will be a greater sense of pride, respect and social standing. His speech was greeted by rapturous applauses.
To explain and clarify the implementation of the aforementioned programmes, which covers the period of 2007 to 2013, a large-scale information campaign is starting in September.
As huge as the Dobrich Fair was, everyone says the one in Plovdiv is far bigger. In fact it is the largest in the whole Balkans.
