Eu Subsidies For Bulgaria

The EU agriculture subsidies will be one of the main driving forces for the large-scale cultivation of land, say experts in the EU funds. Farmers will be eligible to apply for subsidies only if they have contracts for the cultivation of at least 1 ha of crop plants or 0,5 ha of vines, fruit orchards, vegetables or tobacco. Thus, the demand for renting large land plots will increase and will lead to the regrouping of parceled out farmlands.

Farmers will receive aids depending on the size of the arable land and number of bred animals and the support will be made available to farmers who have registered as such in the district agriculture and forestry service.

It is expected that some 100,000 farmers will be eligible to apply for EU's agriculture subsidies after the country's EU entry. The main obstacles to the sector's preparation ahead of accession have come from the registration of land in sizes appropriate for funding under the EU schemes.National Rural Development Plan covers the period from 2007-2013 and the amount of the resources in the program come to Euro 3.242 billions.

Subsidies worth of at least €12.6 million are to be distributed among organic farmers and food producers in Bulgaria. EU rules are pretty uniform in supporting the organic sector throughout the member states.
At present the market is proving to be particularly strong in Western EU. About 20 per cent of the market for all food products in Sweden is organically produced, while Austria and Switzerland are catching up with 11 and 10 per cent of their markets respectively catered for by organic production.
While Eastern European producers may be keen to benefit from strong sales in organic foods, domestic consumption still remains very low.Organic food is very expensive, and many people cannot simply afford it, so domestically the market is non-existent. But producers have been quick to catch on to demand in richer nations and this can only help the industry in the long run

What do you think will happen with the European Union (EU) subsidies that are allocated to Bulgaria?

The money from the EU funds will concentrate in small circles close to the authorities - 41%

The money will remain unused due to lack of capacity - 34%

The money will be distributed in a fair and transparent way - 21%

Not sure - 4%