Bulgaria: Bankruptcies in the Agriculture Sector are Increasing, Cherry Picking is Collapsing

Bankruptcies in agriculture are increasing and the prices of raw materials and fuels are rising. All this against the background of lack of staff in all sectors. A few days ago, Deputy Prime Minister Asen Vassilev made a forecast that the price of grain will increase.

"Since last year, we have doubled the price of grain. This year there is a lot of drought in the rest of Europe and in the United States. The forecasts in our country are for good harvests. The price is also greatly influenced by the war in Ukraine," said on Nova TV Kostadin Kostadinov, president of the National Association of Grain Producers.

Cherry-picking is about to collapse

This year the common cherry picker is about to suffer a complete collapse. The reason is that the price of fruit is too low and producers are forced to pay pickers almost as much as they earn.

The producers in the Kyustendil village of Gorna Grashtitsa sell their cherries en masse, the price being between 90 cents and one lev per kilogram.

"Pickers want an amount of 60, 70 to 80 cents, but the owners of cherry fields can not afford it. Personally, I have 17 decares and this year I went picking only one day with a brigade. We agreed on 55 cents and the people never came back ", explained the mayor of Gorna Grashtitsa Kiril Kirilov.

"There are not many pickers. But even if there are, they want a high price that people cannot afford," said cherry grower Daniel Chavdarov.

According to the producers, the price of cherries should be at least double. "As much as a loaf of bread costs - so much should a kilogram of cherries cost in order to have any real cost," commented the producer Borislav Borislavov. However, for now the price...