Bozduganovo Village, South Central Bulgaria, June 28 (BTA/GNA) – At the launch of Bulgaria’s 2022 harvest campaign near the village of Bozduganovo (South Central Bulgaria), outgoing Agriculture Minister Ivan Ivanov told a news briefing that he expects the 2022 wheat harvest to be not less plentiful than the quantity gathered in last year. A bumper sunflower harvest is expected, too.
“Some 1.5 million hectares have been put under wheat this year, and the Ministry expects an yield of 7 million tonnes,” Ivanov said.
Later in the day, National Grain Producers Association (NGPA) Management Board Chair Kostadin Kostadinov told journalists that he does not share the Minister’s optimism because of some local droughts, and that the NGPA does not estimate a harvest of more than 6.5 million tonnes.
Ivanov said that the legislative revision introducing a zero VAT rate for bread will be passed conclusively on Wednesday.
The outgoing Agriculture Minister expects the price of the old-harvest wheat to fall or at least level off next week. As he put it, the wheat from Ukraine should not be allowed to lead to a slump of the price on the Bulgarian market. “This is a decision of the European Commission, and I cannot say what quantity will be delivered to Bulgaria,” Ivanov added.
He was apparently referring to a EC decision to suspend EU import duties and quotas for Ukrainian goods including farm produce, effective between June 3, 2021 and July 5, 2022.
Kostadinov voiced concern that wheat, sunflower and barley are being imported from Ukraine illegally and sold as produced in Bulgaria. He said that grain producers also have a problem with expensive fertilizers, which is why direct contracting with producers is preferred.
The NGPA Chair recalled that Bulgaria’s wheat production last year was record-high at some 7.5 million tonnes. He does not expect a scarcity of cereals this coming autumn and winter. Given the surge in the prices of fertilizers, plant protection products and fuels, which inflates production costs, wheat prices are nearly double the 2021 levels, he specified.
Because of its good yields, Bulgaria has emerged as a major wheat producer on a scale beyond Europe, and it is still a significant factor on the international grain market, ranking 11th worldwide by exporting some 4 million tonnes of wheat to over 30 countries. According to the Agriculture Ministry, wheat accounted for nearly 20% of Bulgaria’s overall agricultural export in 2021.
PeaceBread Rye Ceremony
The official 2022 PeaceBread Rye Ceremony took place in Bozduganovo on Tuesday in the presence of outgoing Agriculture Minister Ivan Ivanov.
PeaceBread is an initiative involving 12 countries of Central and Eastern Europe that joined the EU after 1989. The project was initiated in 2012, when rye seeds harvested at the Protestant Reconciliation Parish in Berlin were sent to every participating country to be planted near symbolic and historically important locations. In Bulgaria, the NGPA is the official partner of the PeaceBread project.
Kostadinov welcomed the guests at the ceremony. “The PeaceBread project is basically intended to focus public attention on the benefits of cooperation and partnership of EU Member States,” the NGPA said. He expressed hope that “in the new political environment in the EU, agriculture will not be a divide between large and smaller countries, between Western and Eastern Europe.”
GNA
Credit: BTA