site.btaSituation for Grain Producers after Rainfalls Has Normalized, Says National Grain Producer Association

The situation for grain producers after the rainfall in the last two weeks has normalized in terms of moisture at the moment, said Iliya Prodanov, Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Grain Producer Association, in an interview for BTA on Tuesday.

He said though that the most critical time for both autumn and spring crops is coming in May and expressed hope that farmers will be able to harvest the crop. May is a risky month in terms of storms and hail, he said.

The harvest is expected to be around usual with the exception of some isolated places and regions which have severe drought, Prodanov noted.

He commented that the main problem facing farmers at the moment is the high cost of production and low purchase prices. "Our task is to produce, we can hardly influence the market, we must rather influence our cost price. This can be done with modern technologies, with energy-saving technologies, and on the other hand with varieties and hybrids resistant to enemies, diseases and drought", Prodanov emphasized, adding that the most important thing is irrigation, so that they can produce at a lower cost price in order to be competitive in the international markets.

He pointed out that the prices on the grain markets are clearly down in 2025, stressing that the exact production cost is currently not clear and the cost price will be known when the yield is realized. Currently, the selling price is around BGN 350-360 per ton of wheat, he noted and recalled that in recent years agricultural producers have had a profit of between 10-20%, while now they are working at a loss of a similar amount.

"Some of the small farmers who do not have accumulated working capital have sold their farms to larger companies," he said. "We need to reduce rents, yes, we ourselves have increased them, but if we do not reduce them, we will be uncompetitive on the world market," Prodanov said, emphasizing that this is a difficult problem to solve, as it is beyond the power of one association or group of people, but rather a matter of public consensus.

Prodanov noted that they are currently working very hard on changes to the Water Act. "The Environment and Water Ministry made several proposals to us about what they are ready to change, we also gave our proposals to them. Next week we will have another meeting and after that we will have a joint meeting with the Prime Minister to tell him what we have united around. We hope for political support to pass these changes in parliament," he said.

The most important changes that need to be made are easing the regime of water abstraction from surface waters, and from the Danube River and some larger rivers to be entirely on a notification regime, as well as easing the registration of wells and shortening/introducing mandatory deadlines for issuing permits by the basin directorates, Prodanov pointed out. He stressed that very little water is used for irrigation needs in Bulgaria and there is definitely no shortage of water for farmers. "The problems come because of the destroyed infrastructure on the one hand and because of the excessive use of water for energy needs on the other hand," he added.

Regarding the modernization of the agriculture sector, Prodanov commented that in the last few years there has been a certain decline in investments and a certain delay in development due to the poor condition of the sector. "We hope that this is temporary and that after two or three bad years, a few good ones will follow, so that we can continue the development," he emphasized.

Prodanov pointed out that in the last five years, very few grain producers have managed to join investment measures, as the focus has been on measures for sensitive sectors: "Our sector has remained isolated. I hope that in the new programming period some mechanism will be found to have a balance and we will be able to participate as well, so that we can renew the fleet, which has currently begun to depreciate", he stressed.

The National Grain Producer Association numbers nearly 2,800 companies, who are processing 1.4 million hectares.