The economic indicators of the agrarian sector in Bulgaria show an actual increase of 8.9% for 2017. This is the highest annual increase for the country in the last nine years. In current prices, the gross added value in the sector exceeds 4.1 billion BGN, as the increase of the agricultural production is 5.2%.
The available data show reasons to expect stable economic results for 2018, too.
An increase of 13% on an annual basis in the agrarian export can be observed for the first seven months of 2018. Traditionally, in the foreign trade with agricultural products, Bulgaria achieves a positive balance as in the last years it amounts to over 2 billion BGN per year.
The main markets for the Bulgarian agrarian products are the EU countries as the export share reached 71.5% for 2017. Within the EU, the most significant export of agrarian products is to Greece, Romania, Spain and Germany, and outside the Union – to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the USA.
The export structure is relatively constant. Leaders in the export are cereals and oilseed crops. The export of processed products with a higher added value has grown in the last few years as their share in the agrarian export structure has increased. A significant rise on an annual basis can be observed in the export value of milk and dairy products (+15.1%); fats and oils of animal or plant origin (+21.5%); food products, bakery goods (10.7%); fruit and vegetable products (+6.9%); meat and fish products (+14.9%); sugar and sweets (+12%), etc.
In 2017 there was a significant increase in the exported quantities of pork (+18.5%), lamb (+70.7%), poultry meat (+14%), honey (+47.8%) and essential oils (+7.5%).
The quality of some Bulgarian products strengthens due to the European schemes for registration of products with protected designations.
‘Gornooryahovski sudzhuk’ and ‘Balgarsko rozovo maslo’ are listed in the European Database for Protected Geographical Indications. Requests have been made in the country for the registration as Protected Geographical Indications of the products ‘Strandzhanski manov med’, East Balkan Swine Pork Meat (‘Meso ot Iztochnobalkanska svinya’) and ‘Lyutenitsa Parvomai’.
As of this moment, the following are listed as Traditional Speciality Guaranteed in the European Database of Agricultural Products and Foods: ‘File Elena’, ‘Lukanka Panagyurska’, ‘Role Trapezitsa’, ‘Kayserovan vrat Trakiya’ and ‘Pastarma Govezhda’. The inclusion of ‘Sudzhuk Tarnovski’ and ‘Lukanka Troyanska’ in the European Database is expected, since those are also distinguished as Traditional Speciality Guaranteed.