ORGANISATIONS OF ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCERS IN BULGARIA – ANALYSIS OF CURRENT SITUATION AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

There is a trend towards sustainable and stable growth of the organic food sector in Bulgaria as the country is leading the EU with 310% growth between the year 2012 and 2016. Given that the focus of the organic operators was primarily on the export markets, the present research among organic producers showed a promising trend towards developing national and regional organic processing and sales. The analysis of the internal organic marketing conditions and the marketing environment for the production and marketing of organic products by the Producers’ Organisations (POs) made by this research led to the conclusions that a suitable an adaptable marketing strategy should be developed and run for a benefit to the PO members. The survey among some of the PO members showed a clear trend towards increasing number of organic operators (about 44%), who are interested of a joint processing and marketing of organic produce. In spite of the obstacles before the organic POs such as low volume of regional organic produce and sales, insufficient labour, complicated administrative procedures and insufficient capacity and advisory support, the PO members realise the economic advantages of the joint marketing. The PO members would seek and participate in such “marketing cooperatives” to reduce primary production costs and demand higher purchase prices for larger volumes or to improve market perspectives. It is noteworthy, however, that about 31% are not certain on the advantages of such cooperation, which is mainly attributed to the insufficient information, knowledge and training on cooperation issues. Many of PO members declare that they need more capacity building and knowledge on, for instance, design, formulation and setting up of an efficient PO marketing strategy or on marketing cooperatives issues (agro-technical, processing, delivery, marketing, etc.).