Demand for organic food in Bulgaria was increasing and changes in marketing strategy of organic food producers, Stoilko Apostolov, manager of the foundation for organic agriculture Bioselena, said.

Until 2007, Bulgarian organic food producers mainly exported their products, but in 2008 organic food retailers would be opened.

Currently, nearly 200 producers of organic fruits, vegetables and animal farms were registered, Apostolov said as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

The interest in organic foods production was growing and a number of family farms were expected to start producing organic foods products in 2008. The programme for development of rural regions supported such projects, he said.

The risk with such projects was the requirement that the soil and the plants should not be treated with chemical fertilisers and preparations, causing lower production. Besides the transition period required significant investments, which could not be covered, as the production during that period could not be sold as organic foods products.

In the EU, organic foods products were up to 30 per cent more expensive than products treated with artificial fertilisers, Dnevnik said.