The hard days for Bulgarian vegetable production are not over. Our team met with a farmer from Pazardzhik who decided to destroy his greenhouse cucumbers due to the price impasse and the lack of adequate market sales.
Ivan Kaburov from the village of Malo Konare is prematurely destroying his cucumber plantations because it is no longer profitable to take care of them, told bTV.
"Look at the cucumbers. These are the cucumbers that we harvest, package, and sell at the market in Ognyanovo every day. About 20-30% of our production is sold, the rest we return, a large part we throw away“, he commented.
The price of a kilogram of Bulgarian cucumber has collapsed below 90 stotinki on the stock exchange, demand is weak due to unregulated imports.
"The stock exchanges and markets are flooded with imported production, mixed with Bulgarian, sold with Bulgarian repackaged. And consumption is limited. We cannot sell our goods“, points out Ivan Kaburov,
The difference in price from the producer to the end consumer is almost double. Ivan also grows 150 acres of early cabbage. The impasse for domestic vegetable producers is also total with cabbage.
"A large part of Bulgarian producers threw away their production", says Ivan.
The difference between domestic and foreign vegetable production is in the freshness and saturation with prohibited preparations.
Bulgarian vegetables reach the consumer in hours, while imported ones stay for weeks. There are also curious cases.
"Many Bulgarian junkies went to Greece, collected the fields where Greek greenhouses had thrown away their cucumbers. These cucumbers were treated with very dangerous preparations as if for final disinfection of the greenhouse. They are prohibited for consumption. And Bulgarian traders collected them from the waste and placed them on the market in Karnalovo“, the vegetable grower points out.
There is a lack of coordinated and targeted actions to preserve the native vegetable production.
"There is nothing planned. Everything is – we produce... - if we hit the market, we sell, if we don't hit it - we throw away the production“, says Ivan.
The draft Law on the Management of the Agri-Food Chain has recently been proposed for public discussion. Vegetable growers have high hopes, as one of the conditions is that at least 50% of agricultural products in large retail chains must be Bulgarian.
"I think it will stimulate Bulgarian producers to produce more products", another vegetable grower points out.
Today, Ivan Kaburov is destroying the fruitful cucumber plantations, which he will not place on the market, but will give to the cows.
"The cows will enjoy these cucumbers tomorrow. They are very used to these cucumbers and I feel that they are enjoying them a lot, he says.