2 leva per kilogram is the purchase price of cherries in the Kyustendil region announced on the internet. However, there is no picking and production and the harvest is almost zero due to the frosts in April, BNR reported.
For fresh consumption, cherries are sold at a minimum of 10 leva per kilogram. The orchards are under 24-hour security by the police and gendarmerie against theft.
The pickers, mostly Roma, ask for 2 leva per kilogram, but no one hires them because there is nothing to pick in the orchards. Where there are surviving cherries, they are abandoned by the owners of the orchards and are of poor quality. Symbolic quantities are being delivered daily to the several open purchase points in the area of the village of Dragovishtitsa.
Despite the failed harvest, Kyustendil Municipality is hard at work preparing for the Cherry Festival this weekend, and it may be necessary to import cherries from Greece.