Bulgarian Farming Ruined during GERB's Rule - Report

According to Bulgarian merchants' data – tomatoes come mainly from neighboring Greece and Turkey, cucumbers - from Jordan, potatoes – from Egypt, while peppers are imported from Macedonia. File photo

Bulgaria's farming is in deplorable state after the four years in office of Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, from the Cabinet of the centrist GERB party, according to local press.

Bulgarian Press (Press) daily writes Wednesday that despite Naydenov often bragging about his work, produce growing (cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, and tomatoes, among others) has shrunk on average by 38%; the potato crop is down by 80%, and the irrigation systems are ruined.

The article comes on the heels of statements of caretaker Agriculture Minister, Ivan Stankov, Bulgaria, once a flourishing farming country, now imports 90% of produce offered on the local market.

According to merchants' data – tomatoes come mainly from neighboring Greece and Turkey, cucumbers - from Jordan, potatoes – from Egypt, while peppers are imported from Macedonia.

The Chair of the Association of Bulgarian Agrarian Unions, Lyudmila Todorova, is quoted saying that in the course of just one year (2011), 140 000 have left the country's rural areas.

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, resigned on February 21st amidst mass protest rallies while the prosecutor's office pressed corruption charges against Miroslav Naydenov on March 26.

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