Do Italian agricultural entrepreneurs, besides being angry at the national and federal governments and climate change, have any serious reason to look for opportunities in Bulgaria?
Little understood and promoted, the potential of Bulgaria's agriculture and food processing industry could make a comeback in the coming months and years in the Italian debate.
We are in the midst of climate change, no matter if one side is right or wrong: the Spanish and Italian aquifers are drying up, producing agriculture in Sahara-like temperatures and in the absence of water will be an increasingly complex challenge. In the meantime, conditions of humidity, fertility and space in Bulgaria continue to be the same as ever. There are 3.8 mln hectares of arable land, the majority of which is now cereal farmland, and only because the agricultural sector failed to express a national policy of subsidies and programmes when it joined the EU in 2007, and internal and external lobbies prevailed. Large concentrations of land, low rents, large and increasingly automated machinery. Cereal farming even where vegetables, fruit and pulses were grown for centuries. On the other hand, there is no institutional support for small and medium-sized producers of fruit and vegetables, or other products other than wheat, maize and rape. There is no white or red or neutral cooperative system, neither for credit nor for organisational support. The university counts very little in the technical and research sector. There are no credit lines that favour organic and zero-kilometre cultivation, despite and regardless of the love for one's own traditions and local and specific products.
Bulgaria has a centuries-old tradition in the production of cereals, fruit and vegetables. As well as in the canning industry. Unfortunately, over the past two decades, the prevailing globalisation and post-communist apathy have favoured the export of mainly brains and brawn without which an economy, let alone an agricultural sector, cannot be built.
Despite this negative scenario, for Italian and Western entrepreneurs, Bulgaria is a place they should pay close attention to. The land is good, their expertise, experience, and resources can make a big difference, just as some fellow Italian entrepreneurs have already done, by the way: in wine, fruit, etc., but still too little.
Unfortunately, individual entrepreneurs have neither the time nor the resources to take on such projects. Instead, projects that are a little bit institutional and a little bit private should be sought out, oriented towards exploring and imagining potential. Once the ground has been broken, the economic players and enlightened trailblazers will come along.