Bulgaria President Calls for Law on Rose Farming

“The rose is not just the queen of all flowers and a poetic symbol, it is what more than 30,000 people rely on for their living,” Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov said. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s president has called on lawmakers to adopt legislation for the production and trade in products based on the country’s worldwide famous rose oil.

“The image of the Bulgarian rose around the world should be protected and developed further,” President Georgi Parvanov said during his visit to the town of Kazanlak in Central Bulgaria.

“The rose is not just the queen of all flowers and a poetic symbol, it is what more than 30,000 people rely on for their living,” he added.

The comment came days after the worldwide famous harvest began in the ‘valley of the roses’ close to Kazanlak in Central Bulgaria.

The rose farmers report that they expect a good harvest this year with a kilogram of blossoms set to fetch 55 stotinki. An estimated 15 000 decares of roses will be harvested in the region over the next 22-25 days.

The main problem facing the farmers this year again is a lack of laborers, who can not be attracted to work on the harvest due to the low pay, which is related to the low price per kilogram for roses on the market.

Bulgaria is one of the biggest producers of rose oil in the world. The reason for this is hidden in the high qualities of the Bulgarian Kazanluk rose ("Kazanlashka roza"), a special type, that was cultivated in the region after many years of development. The Bulgarian roses come from the so called Damascena rose.

A large percentage of the harvested roses are used for the production of rose oil - "the liquid gold" of Bulgaria. Rose oil is used mainly for the making of perfumes, chocolates, liqueur and jam - it is 3 times more expensive than real gold. One kilogram of rose oil is extracted from roughly 3000 kg of roses.

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