The region of the central Sredna Gora Mountain, encompassing the municipalities of Pirdop, Zlatitsa, Anton and others has an industrial face - some of the biggest corporate employers in Bulgaria, providing jobs to over 8,000, are right here, in this part of the country. Aurubis Bulgaria, Elatsite-Med, Dundee Precious Metals Chelopech – these are the names of just some of the foreign investment companies operating here. Their production is connected with copper and gold mining and processing. With these mammoth technological companies which are in constant need of workers, few people in these parts would dare start up businesses of their own. Yet the spirit of enterprise is far from dead. Proof of this is the hothouse for year-round flowers near Chelopech village.

Its owner Georgi Ostrev has been in the flower business for some 20 years. At one time he was in charge of flower growing at Sofia municipality, supervising several big and well-equipped hothouses. Today, the flowers in his own hothouse are grown on top of special tables imported from Holland, so that the workers do not have to bend over all the time, as they would have had to if the flowers were directly on the ground. To start his business, Goergi Ostrev took out a bank loan. He says it was an act of youthful pluck, but adds he regrets nothing because the hothouse now provides for his family’s livelihood. He has eight workers who also have families to support. Ostrev says that an 8,000 euro credit is enough to start a small business in this country. What are his own reasons for choosing to be independent?

“We have all had dumb bosses, people who don’t have an inkling of what the job is all about. And I think that all people in high places in state and municipal companies are like that. That is the reason why I opted to work for myself, to work what I want, to do what I can do best. When you have ambitions money is never enough. You want to expand your business, but ours is a small market and there isn’t room for much flair. I would advise anyone thinking of such an undertaking to expand their business step by small step and to try not to be over-confident or categorical in their actions.  It is important to keep abreast of tendencies. I myself started out only with potted flowers, but that proved highly insufficient, because it is only seasonal and temporary work. Practice has shown that flower arrangements are in constant demand.”

Ostrev says there are good times ahead for agriculture in Bulgaria as a whole. Evidence of this are the successes of other entrepreneurs in farming.

“I am surprised there are such producers in small towns and villages, even within the bounds of Sofia district. I recently went to a buffalo farm in Grigorievo village nearby. It had been a long time since I had tried buffalo products, I had my childhood memories and that fills me with optimism about the future of Bulgaria. I meet people in dairy processing who sell their products in stores of their own in Sofia and the environs. In Dolna Banya there is a protein bar production workshop that uses a new technology. The efforts of individual producers have been a success. We are a small market and we have to be very thorough in our work. When you are working for your own self you have a responsibility to each customer, you also have to make an effort to protect and uphold Bulgarian tradition. If we were having this conversation one or two years ago, I would have been more sceptical but now I am optimistic.”

English version: Milena Daynova