Bulgaria is one of the leading exporters of grain. Over the past year, it exported grain worth more than USD 1 billion, or a quarter of the country's total exports. The data was announced on 28 November by the National Grain Producers Association, which held its ninth annual agricultural seminar in Plovdiv.

Bulgaria’s Agriculture Minister Dessislava Taneva announced that over BGN 7 billion have been invested in the sector over the past 4 years. The industry is well developed and highly competitive worldwide, Taneva said.

More than 75% of the arable land, using support, is sown with grain crops. The emphasis in the new programming period will be on organic production, Minister Taneva remarked.

However, the industry is skeptical that grain production is possible without plant protection. Manufacturers are pushing for more clarity on the measures they need to take and what the new subsidy regulations will look like.

"This is the challenge of our time. We either have to apply, find, study innovative, agricultural, good practices that are environmentally friendly or the whole society will bear the consequences, damages caused to the natural bioresources. That is the truth, and we have to deal with it. Anything is possible. The question is how to use the achievements of science", Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Dessislava Taneva said.