Sector Overview

Bulgaria enjoys excellent natural conditions for developing the agriculture and forestry sector. Cultivated agricultural land occupies about 4.9 million hectares or 44% of the total territory of the country. The favorable climate for crop production and the availability of agricultural land and long traditions have resulted in well-developed plant growing and animal breeding. Other advantages are the low labor costs and the high-schools and colleges offering training in modern farming and animal breeding. Foreigners cannot own land, but the Foreign Investment Law removed restrictions on the acquisition of land by locally registered companies with foreign participation. Among the main crops produced are tomatoes, pepper, tobacco, grapes, wheat, maize, beans, potato, sunflower, peaches, apricots, apples, melons, and nuts. There are traditions in the sheep, pig and cattle breeding, poultry farming, and bee-keeping.

Traditionally, Bulgaria has had a leading position in exports of grapes, oriental tobacco, tomatoes, apricots and other agricultural products to European markets.

Good opportunities in the sector exist for the creation of total production chains through a combination of selected companies in clusters covering primary sector, processing, sales and distribution. An important advantage of the sector is the presence of well-established food research and development institutions.

Within Bulgaria a special EU support program (SAPARD), provides for a 50% investment subsidy for investment projects in agriculture.

Bulgarian agriculture is one of the hottest investment sectors in Bulgaria! During the next 5-10 years massive growth is expected. The reasons are very simple and outlined below with a simple comparison example!

Simply stated: By investing in Bulgaria's agriculture sectors investors quickly realize tremendous savings, without compromising the quality of their products.

Fruit and Vegetable Production

All conditions for production of quality fruits and vegetables in Bulgaria are present! Strong traditions, excellent climate, availability of quality workforce and low operational costs make this sector extremely attractive to investors. Compared to other major EU producing countries, here the production costs are significantly reduced, and all it takes is good transportation to the EU open market, which Bulgaria is a part of.



 

Dairy Products

All conditions for production of quality dairy production in Bulgaria are present! Strong traditions, excellent climate, availability of quality workforce and low operational costs make this sector extremely attractive to investors. Compared to other major EU producing countries, here the production costs are significantly reduced, and all it takes is good transportation to the EU open market, which Bulgaria is a part of.

 

Meat Production

All conditions for production of quality meat production in Bulgaria are present! Strong traditions, excellent climate, availability of quality workforce and low operational costs make this sector extremely attractive to investors. Compared to other major EU producing countries, here the production costs are significantly reduced, and all it takes is good transportation to the EU open market, which Bulgaria is a part of.

Wine Production

The Bulgarian wine is exceptionally good! Major EU investors have already invested massively into wine production.

Workforce Availability

Qualified labor is available at a cost that beats the cost of most other EU countries by a long shot.