site.btaBTA Signs Partnership Agreement with Food and Vegetables Branch Chamber

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the Fruit and Vegetable Branch Chamber (FVBC) signed a partnership agreement at the BTA National Press Club in Sofia on Monday. The cooperation was sealed with the signatures of the FVBC Management Board Chair Tsvetan Tsekov and BTA Director General Kiril Valchev.

The event coincided with International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, September 29. On this occasion, Valchev announced that a partnership agreement with the Bulgarian Food Bank has been prepared and will be signed at a later stage.

The BTA Director General quoted data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), according to which in 2023, about 13% of food in the world was thrown away, or 1.25 billion tonnes of food is lost, with households responsible for 60% of global food waste. He added that approximately 29% of the world's population – 2.33 billion people, according to last year's FAO data – live in moderate or severe food insecurity. One in every 11 people in the world faces hunger. Food loss and waste generate 8 to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose data is from 2019, said the BTA Director General.

In Valchev's words, Bulgaria too is among the countries where significant amounts of food are thrown away. He pointed out that according to Eurostat data cited by the Executive Director of the Bulgarian Food Bank, Tsanka Milanova, each Bulgarian discarded an average of 93 kilograms of food in 2023, amounting to 614,000 tonnes. By comparison, in the European Union, the amount of food waste is about 130 kilograms per person per year, or 60 million tonnes. "We must appreciate what God has given us here in Bulgaria, which is why we chose this particular day to sign our agreement," said Valchev.

The Director General of BTA recalled that the Agency has partnership agreements with a number of industry organizations and bilateral chambers, which help it collect information on the basis of which BTA publishes articles that can be used by all media. "We have agreements with nine bilateral chambers and over 20 industry organizations from various economic sectors, including agriculture, and now we are adding another partner in the form of the Fruit and Vegetables Branch Chamber," said Valchev.

He noted that BTA relies on the systematic provision of information to the Agency's Economy specialised editorial office, established in 2021, from a wide variety of industry organizations, one of which is the Chamber. "BTA talks about Bulgarian business by naming companies. This is not advertising, it is information. Part of the information is knowing which companies are involved, especially when it comes to new investments, new projects, social programmes, job opportunities in Bulgaria, including in your fruit and vegetable production sector," Valchev told the Chamber's management.

He noted that in August, BTA launched a special column [in Bulgarian] called "I Choose Bulgaria," where Bulgarians around the world and in Bulgaria can see what job opportunities there are in the country. "Highly qualified people, specialists in various fields, are sought. I am sure that the companies in your industry chamber will also provide such examples and systematic information about what jobs are available," said Valchev. He noted that it is important for the Agency that the materials it receives from its partners have settled copyrights. "This expands the capabilities of the national agency - not to rely solely on our photographers, camerapersons, reporters and editors, who also receive information from you, which, of course, they check according to all journalistic rules," added the BTA Director General.

He presented Tsekov with a folder containing information on the Branch Chamber from the Agency's archives from 2023 to the present, and expressed his hope that there would be many more publications on the basis of the newly signed agreement.