The grape picking season in Bulgaria kicked off a week earlier than usual - on September 1. However, the harvesting of some grape sorts is to last longer - until end October. Nature was not so benevolent to vine growers this year and the yield is expected to be of a less successful than last year’s one (which was in fact among the best ones ever) in terms of both quality and quantity, said for Radio Bulgaria the Chairman of the Executive Agency on Wine an Vine Engineer Krassimir Koev.

“Last year the wine factories processed some 250,000 tons of grapes”, Mr. Koev explains. “There are no forecasts about the new harvest, but I think that the factories will process around 200,000 tons, which is 20% less than in 2013. It is due to the fact that many areas of the country were hit by hailstorms and torrential rains. Many diseases affected the vineyards. Mildew for instance damages the leaves of this fruit. As a result, the yields are lower. Fortunately there are no regions with fully damaged vineyards. The regions of Blagoevgrad, Melnik and Sandanski were affected the most. Many vineyards were affected also in Montana, Vidin, Razgrad, Silistra and Targovishte districts.”

What is the expected quality of this year’s grape harvest? It will mainly depend on the weather conditions during the long harvesting period which lasts between 1 and 2 months.

“If torrential rains occur again, the quality of grapes would certainly deteriorate”, Engineer Koev comments. “However, if the weather remains good and sunny, the grapes will ripen and the sugar content in the fruit will rise, which will result in higher quality.”

According to Mr Koev, Bulgaria is not threatened by a Russian embargo on its wine exports for the time being. Russia has resumed its position as the biggest market for Bulgarian wines.

“Nearly 45-50% of Bulgarian wine export heads to the Russian Federation”, the head of the Executive Agency on Wine and Vine specifies. I would also like to point to the growing quantities going to the Asian market, especially to China. Bulgaria exported 1.5 million liters of wine to China in 2013, while in the first half of the current year alone the exported quantity reaches 2 million liters. We expect our wine export to that country to reach 4 million liters by end 2014, i.e. the export would double. We have good presence on our traditional markets such as Germany, Great Britain, The Czech Republic and Poland.”

In 2013 Bulgaria exported 61 million liters of wine from all price segments, the expert further says and reminds that during the crisis period the wine and vine sector was among the sectors which retained their growth. This is to some extend due to the well-functioning national program aimed at providing assistance to the vine-growing and wine-producing sector.

“People continue to show interest in planting new vineyards within the 2014-2018 national program aimed at assisting the vine growing and wine producing”, Engineer Koev specifies. The program is functioning at its full capacity. The interest even exceeds the money which is to be granted to people who wish to plant new vineyards. I hope that this tendency will continue in the future, because it provides excellent opportunity for Bulgaria to renew its vineyards and plant high-yielding sorts and make its wines more competitive on the international market in terms of price and quality.

Nowadays vineyards cover areas of nearly 60,000 hectares. The lands planted with vines increased by 3,000 hectares over the recent years. In 2014 another 1,000 hectares of vineyards have been planted. However Bulgaria has the right to plant just over 80,000 hectares of vineyards within the frameworks of the EU Wine Regulation. Engineer Koev believes that this capacity can be filled by 2018.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov